The Turk Kid
by PiperDreamer
Summary: Yo. My name is Ambient Loveless, NOT Harry Potter. My hobbies include espionage, extortion, and emulating my brother Reno. My dream is to become like Sephiroth and torch some town just because, world domination and make a lot of money. Nice to meet ya. AU
1. Reno gets a brother

Title: The Turk Kid

Author: PiperDreamer

Rated: T

Disclaimer: If you think either of these are mine…you need your head examined.

* * *

The night sky was too polluted to see any stars, and the air held a grimy taste to it that new comers often gagged upon.

But if you were a local of Midgar the air tasted the same and many have only heard of stars in stories.

Midgar was a city of slums, where the rich laughed at the poor's pathetic attempts to cling to life and where the blackest of souls spread their cruelty like a disease, the young having learned the ropes of life far too early and the old prayed they lived to see better times.

Paranoia was man's best friend while having morals was considered a foolish nicety, and who wouldn't believe this? If you were well off enough to have a home you were truly fortunate to get there unharmed and without getting mugged.

This said, a young man, looking rightly around seventeen walked up to a decent and stable looking apartment building, carrying a box of take out food as he took a drag from his cigarette.

The teen had a lanky physique, unkempt red hair and two symmetrical red tattoos on his cheek bones. He wore goggles, pushed up onto his forehead, an unbuttoned suit jacket, and an untucked dress shirt and looked for the entire world like a lazy guy making a delivery and couldn't be easier pickings.

But as the two thugs in a heap sporting lumps on their noggins behind him could attest, he was no push over and had absolutely no qualm whatsoever about electrocuting any guy in the gonads if they irritate him enough.

The teen meandered up the old stairs, idly noting the various cracks here and there of the apartment complex he resided in before finding himself in front of his door.

Taking one last puff he threw out the cigarette, exhaling the smoke into the already overly polluted air before opening the door.

Looking around he found a nearly spotless interior, the only signs of anyone having been here was the still hot cup of coffee on the counter.

"Yo! Come out or I'm eating all of your dinner!" the red head said, waving the box high.

A gasp was heard and a moment later the goggled headed teen saw a boy crawl out from under the couch and rushing forward. The boy stopped short, smiling up at him.

"Reno! You're back!" the child said happily.

Reno, for that was the red heads name grunted, handing over the box. The boy took the meal and headed to the kitchen. The teen sprawled out on his coach.

A few minutes later the boy came back out, two dishes in his hands. Handing one to Reno the boy sat down next to the couch, quietly eating his own food.

As they ate in comfortable silence Reno reminisce on how they first met.

Three months ago Reno had returned from a mission, dog tired. When he got home he found a small waif propped up against his door, wearing clothes far too big for him and looking woefully underfed.

The teens first instinct was to kick him out of the way. Kids were often in the apartment complexes, hoping to steal any goods you so happen to 'drop'. Before he could raise his foot the kid jerked, having apparently fallen asleep. Wide scared eyes search franticly before squinting up at him, telling the teen he had seen abuse and was in dire need of glasses.

Before he shooed him away though he had caught the color of his eyes and stopped. Reno had grown up with his father, a haggard man who worked as muscles to that creep Don Corneo in the Sector 6 Wall Market and had never met his mother but knew that he had the woman's eyes; his father told him this frequently.

He worked in a place where he met, blackmailed and drafted people from all over the globe yet as far as he knew he had never encountered someone who shared his eye shade, making him feel unique.

Yet this kid had them too. Taking a closer look, he could sorta see a resemblance. Add a few pounds on the kid, clean him up a bit and dye his hair red and they'd look like legit brothers.

Reno scoffed at this. There was no way this kid could be related to him. He's luck wasn't that bad. Looking back at the kid who was staring up at him in unfocused curiosity he realized that the kid was shivering and sweating, despite it being muggy and warm.

Deciding to do his one good deed of the year Reno dragged the kid in and forced him to drink a health potion. Minutes later he was well but sleeping. Reno decided, against his better judgment, to let the kid stay for the night before kicking him back out onto the streets in the morning.

When he awoke the next morning, he found his normal pig sty apartment spotless and found the kid scrubbing his toilet. Apparently the kid could cook and clean, meaning he wouldn't need to hire those house cleaners ever again.

And so the boy had lived here ever since.

"Reno, sir?" the boy spoke.

Looking back at the kid he found him politely asking for his empty plate so that he could wash it. Reno shrugged, giving the plate over.

The boy was very young. When he first met the kid he had originally thought him to be three years old but then took into account that kids living in the slums were half-starved and malnourished, stunting their growth meaning that the kid in front of him could be any where between three and seven.

Despite being very small he was very fast, a trait he probably picked up from running from thugs and bullies.

He had a scraggily mess of black hair, was very pale (though to be fair most people in Midgar were; the sun rarely shines through the clouds of effluence), a lightning shape scar on his forehead.

Standing up Reno lethargically wandered to the kitchen door, leaning against it as he watched the boy wash the dishes.

The kid must of sensed him because he turned to him, eyes squinting.

"Yes sir?"

"Have you come up with an answer yet?" Reno asked, stratching his head.

"To what question?"

"Your name. You've been here for three whole months. If your gonna stay here I need a name to call ya."

Early on Reno had asked the kid for his name but was surprised to find that he couldn't recall ever having one, unless you counted 'Freak Boy' as a name.

To this Reno had told him to get one; everybody needed a name, if only to give themselves an identity.

The boy smiled, drying his small hands. "I think I got one, but I wanted you to hear it first."

"Okay. Shoot."

"Um…Am-Ambient. Ambient Loveless." The boy stuttered, looking away.

"…Ambient…Loveless." Reno deadpanned, not sure if he should laugh or pity the kid.

"Yes."

"Hmm. Why?"

"I was reading a book I found in our neighbor's trash called Loveless, and well I liked the book and well…ambient was a style of music I heard on your radio that I liked."

"Ah. I see." Reno yawned before making a shooing motion with his hand. "If that's your choice, fine. Just remember, it's what I'm calling you for the rest of your life."

"I know."

"Good. Now how far have you gotten in that pick locking book I gave you?"

"Half way. I broke into four of our neighbors homes and took some gil."

"Nice." Reno frowned, stepping closer to the newly dubbed Ambient Loveless.

"What?" the boy said once Reno came into focus, meaning he was mere inches from his face.

"…your blind as a bat, aren't you?"

"A little."

"Your eyes didn't focus till I got close enough to count the dirt specks on your cheeks. You're all but blind yo."

"Erm…"

Standing up Reno sighed turning around. "Get your shoes on and jacket. We're paying a eye doctor a visit. But first we're dyeing your head."

"What?" Ambient yelped, looking startled.

"We're dyeing your head red. This way I can claim your family and get child benefits and a tax reduction for being your brother and guardian." Reno said, grinning over his shoulder. He stopped upon seeing the boys wide eye stare and –oh dear god no! – tears.

"Um, haha! Just kidding?" he tried, hoping the kid would stop the water works.

"Do you really mean that? Are you really gonna be my brother?" Ambient whispered.

It then dawned on him that the boy in front of him was not just a kid, but more then likely an orphan or was abandon by his real family.

Most kids had serious trust issues thanks to those situations and were starved for attention, even negative ones.

Some just wanted family or someone to show they care.

Hearing him say he was going to be his brother must of sounded like a dream come true.

Grinning Reno said, "Duh! Of course I'm gonna be your brother! Your already taking up a chunk of my paycheck, why not make it official?"

Reno hated paperwork with a fiery passion and had gotten into lots of trouble in the past for literally setting it on fire, but if that means he got a live in cook/cleaner and benefits for taking responsibility for him then that was fine. Win-win!

* * *

Hi. This is my try at a Harry Potter in FF7 world, and I always wondered how Harry would have turned out had he been raised by Reno.

Harry/Ambient is five years old in this chapter, and the FF7 time line in this story is roughly about a year or so after Sephiroth had torched Nibelheim, meaning he'll be about nine when the meteor crashes. The next chapter will take place just after Advent Children, making him eleven.

Sorry if you didn't like Reno, that was my first attempt to write him. He was hard because he just seemed like a moody lazyass before Advent Children (grant it, I still thought he was funny but still).

This is not canon (obviously)! There will be a lot of changes in this! Enjoy!

PD

.


	2. The boy named Ambient Loveless

Title: The Turk Kid

Author: PiperDreamer

Rated: T

Disclaimer: If you think either of these are mine…you need your head examined.

* * *

Deep in a top secret lab, three kids were pilfering- er, _foraging_ the place for anything that looked useful and/or pricy.

The scientists that ran the place had been knocked out curtsey of a well aimed Sleepel and quickly tied up and gagged in a corner.

The oldest looking of the three children appeared to be ten, with messy brown hair and blue eyes and the unofficially adopted son of one Cloud Strife. He was armed with a guard stick and was sadly the current voice of reason for the trio.

"If we end up getting caught in here, I'm blaming everything on you." The boy said to the other boy in front of him.

"Why? I invited you and Marlene to come, it was your choice to take it or leave it." Replied the second boy who was currently picking a lock that was on a cabinet. He appeared about eight years old, with bright messy red hair, startling emerald eyes that glowed with a pair of goggles resting on top of his head. He was armed with stun-gun and was the one who most often ignored the voice of reason.

"I'm serious," the first boy said, "If we get caught, I'm blaming you."

"Fine. I just won't go to your funeral."

"Ambient, that's not funny." The only girl in the trio said, the one called Marlene. She was a pretty six year old brunette whose hair was in a braid with a pink bow, her chocolate eyes looking around in concern as she fingered her gloves, tightening them out of nervous habit.

"Denzel, Ambient, maybe we should stop and just go. Besides, Ambient is in enough trouble as it is." She pleaded, looking over at the unconscious scientist. Did one of them just stir?

"What trouble?" the red head replied, never looking away from his job.

The boy, Denzel, fixed his partner a bland stare. "The one where you had held the entire staff at the school hostage."

"That was ages ago!"

"That was this afternoon."

"Details."

"Um, guys-"

"Oh Jenova's skull (BEEP)ing head!" the red head known as Ambient swore, having finally gotten the door open and seeing the contents of the cabinet.

Denzel looked in, chuckling. "Oh look! MORE elixir stones!"

"I don't believe it! That's gotta be the two hundredth one we've found!"

"Guys-"

"Seriously! Why do they have so many?"

"Maybe they keep a bunch here and a stash of phoenix feathers somewhere else; this department does specialize in Phoenix Down's and regular Elixir's."

"Guys-"

"Dang it, why can't we find those feathers? I'm sick of making gold!"

"GUYS!"

"What Mar-Mar? …oooooooh crap." Ambient said, looking to where Marlene had been pointing. The scientists were awake and angry.

"…your boss is gonna murder us." Denzel said, palming his face.

Ambient stood up, walking to the scientists. "Not if he never finds out."

"What are you…?"

**ZZZZZAP!**

"MMMPPPHHH!"

"Ambient!"

"Oh god, you shocked him in the-"

"Now," Ambient said with a cheerful grin on his face, stun-gun out as he stood over the weeping scientist, "I understand that it is protocol for you to report when your things go missing in large quantities, so this is what we're gonna do; I'm going to take half of those rocks and your gonna report that ten vicious looking thugs had came in and robbed you guys blind, knocking you guys unconscious and destroyed the cameras. This way you can get more stuff through the Asset Protection warranty, and the Turks don't get in trouble! All in all, it's a win-win situation. What do you say?"

The scientists looked very displeased as the one Ambient stood over moaned in pain.

An ill looking Denzel and exasperated Marlene looked ready to protest.

The stun-gun crackled with electricity.

In a land slide like decision, everyone was quick to agree to Ambient's suggestion and many a family jewels were spared.

* * *

Elena exhaled, looking quite ready to hunt down and strangle Reno. He had roped her and Tseng into see his little brother's teacher. The first time he did this she had been touched, that was until she realized he was using her as a human shield from the increasingly homicidal looking school director, who apparently promised to skin Reno alive if he ever saw him again. The man seemed to be sporting more gray hairs ever time she saw him.

"Hello Mr. Morten." Tseng greeted, Elena gave a slight nod as she tried to figure out just how Reno managed to talk her and Tseng into this. Again.

Mr. Morten fixing his blood shot eyes on the Turk leader.

"Hello Mister Tseng and Miss Elena." He said, though the way he said their names indicated he was not happy to see any of the Turks.

"I called you here to talk about young Ambient Loveless." Elena winced when he said the name as though it was vile poison.

"What did he do now?" Tseng asked, cutting straight to the problem.

"Today, the boy started a riot and then proceeded to lead the other children against the teachers! He barricaded himself in my office and held me and my secretary hostage until they were all paid 100,000 gil! Per a captor! Do you have any idea how many kids were in on this?"

Elena winced again, shaking her head.

"There are nearly two hundred kids that attend this school and over half of them were in on this! The only reason we're still not locked in the closest is because Miss Lockhart came by and promised to give that damned brat free meals for the next two weeks and lessons on martial arts to anyone who wants to learn!"

Mr. Morten was breathing hard, trying to stay calm.

"In the past month alone he has plagued our school-"

* * *

"Today for show and tell I had brought a rare and strange sight!...unfortunately, its microscopic and highly contagious."

* * *

"- broken and entry, messed with our records-"

* * *

"Mr. Loveless! How did you get into the permanent records room?"

"Greased the hinges. Now be quiet; I'm changing Princeton into a straight Z- student!"

* * *

"-bribed the staff-"

* * *

"Mr. Loveless! I cannot allow you to change Mr. Princeton or any other student's records! Now get off that computer!"

"But if I get off now, the school committee won't get that triple raise or that mandatory vacation with pay!"

"…I'll be back in ten minutes. You better be off when I get back."

* * *

"-stolen private property-"

* * *

"Ambient Loveless, you get out of my car right now!"

"Crap! It's the fuzz!"

"It's principle you degenerate!"

* * *

"-left the school during school hours with other students-"

* * *

"Ambient, I don't think this is safe."

"Oh come on Marlene! We're getting ice cream!"

"You hotwired Fenrir."

"No one can prove it. Besides, all evidence says a random thug did it!"

* * *

"-and he used a Toad spell on the entire staff and then left clues for us to find the cure!" Morten was positively seething by this point.

Tseng closed his eyes, mentally counting to ten.

"Well that's not too bad." Elena said, trying to be positive.

"How is that not something worth worrying? !" the man seethed.

"He could have electrocuted all the male staff."

"He's already done that! Do you have any idea how excruciatingly painful it is to get shocked in the gnads? I'm still mourning over my poor lefty!" Mr. Morten yelled.

Elena and Tseng both winced.

"And to make matters worse, the school is divided thanks to him! Half of the students look up to him while the other half is traumatized by him!"

"By any chance did the other side make fun of his name?" Tseng asked.

"Yes." The man seethed, turning his hateful look on the impassive Tseng. Elena groaned.

It was a known fact that Ambient did not take kindly to his name getting mocked. For some unfathomable reason the boy was very proud of his name and got nasty when insulted about it; Mr. Morten knew from experience that calling Ambient's given or surname girly, sissy or just plain stupid made things worse by times ten.

The second floor still smelled like raw sewage.

Morten inhaled deeply. "Due to the numeral amount of problems we here at Midgar Academy had to deal with since he first came, I cannot tell you how happy I am to say that he will not be coming back next year."

Tseng's look of nonchalance suddenly turned to shock as both he and Elena stood up, both yelling, "What!"

"He will not be coming back for the next semester. It's really for the best; the teacher's won't be too scared to work, half of the student body will finally overcome their past trauma and the other half can hopefully get over their unhealthy adoration for him."

"But we need him here!" Elena said, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice. "Do you have any idea the kind of mayhem he'll get into if he doesn't have a school that he is conscripted to go to?"

Morten blinked at this. "Conscripted?" As in they _drafted_ him into school?

"Yes! The Turks and AVALANCHE all pitched in to get the kid into this place! It was to keep him busy! Do you have any idea what he's like when he has free time? Or worse, free time and is bored AND is with his brother?" Elena said looking ready to scream. Instead she dialed her cell phone, muttering about needing to find another school to get Ambient in as Tseng cursed Reno for putting him through this.

"I'm sure he'll be fine-"

"Sir, that boy is smart, devious, and amoral enough to do what ever it takes to get his hands on what ever he wants! Money is one of his greatest motivations to do anything! He aspires to become the riches guy in the world and that's not even his goal in life; it's just a hobby!" Elena yelled, before rapidly talking to someone called Rude about a 'Code SiT-AL'.

"And to make matters worse, this means he'll have more time to spend with Reno." Tseng said, causing both Morten and Elena to shiver as the mental image of two red heads laughing as Midgar went of in a fiery explosion filled their heads.

"You're making this bigger then it really is." Mr. Morten said, though he knew he was lying through his teeth and was only slightly surprised they would try to distract the demon spawn- er, young boy with money. The brat was the Chief Financial Officer for ShinRa Inc. after all.

Elena covered the cell phone, glaring at him. "Do you have any idea what you unleashed onto the world? Gaia is still recovering, you moron! Seperated they are a pain in the a** to deal with! But together those two are armed with near-inexhaustible resources, libraries, connections, a knack for pranks and an over active imagination! We sent Ambient to school to keep him busy and away from Reno when he's not on missions because he can find disaster! Even in his sleep!" she yelled before going back to the phone.

"Well blame his upbringing." Mr. Morten said, mentally glaring at Reno. But then the grey haired man felt fear when he saw the normally calm collected Turk leader give him a look that promised he would be visiting Midgar Health Center very soon.

"Sir, have you ever heard the phrase, 'There are worse fates then death'?"

The older man slowly nodded.

"Good. Now apply that to Reno and Ambient and you have a lovely recipe for a second apocalypse because quite frankly with Ambient second goal that's all I see and with Reno support I fear Gaia will be destroyed this time around."

"Um, second goal?" Morten asked, dreading the answer.

"Ambient aspires to destroy an entire town and rain chaos upon some unsuspecting civilization…just like Sephiroth."

The director paled.

"Okay!" Elena said, snapping her phone shut. "Rude is looking into other schools, but most of them are in other cities. If we can wing it, we can get the actually keep him here!"

"What! NOOO!" Mr. Morten yelled.

Elena swore she saw more grey hairs sprout from his head.

"I was wondering, where is Ambient?" Tseng said, hiding the smugness he felt.

* * *

Tifa looked up as the door rang, smiling at who it was.

Marlene Wallace, Denzel Strife and the Turk boy Ambient Loveless walked in, laughing and joking around.

After she had rescued the school the director practically begged her to take Ambient away, so she did but only after the man had proclaimed that if Ambient didn't leave he was going to commit suicide.

Tifa had taken the kids back to her bar, not wanting the man's death on her conscious. Barely an hour after they arrived Ambient had asked if Marlene, Denzel and he could go out playing.

After getting him to promise to stay out of any building that were potentially hazardous to their health and to not breaking into and raiding through other peoples homes she allowed them.

For the most part, Denzel and Marlene were good kids. They're just a bit more mature then others their ages.

Ambient was a good kid too though she believed that he suffered from a really bad case of curiosity. It didn't help that he was raised by Reno either.

Tifa chuckled as she watched Ambient make a joke, remembering the first time she met the strange Turk boy.

* * *

Flashback

* * *

Tifa wasn't sure if she should continue to gawk at Cloud or start laughing. Either way, she would never forget the sight of her childhood friend in drag. Ever. Where was a camera when you needed one?

After a hasty conversation (with Aerith kindly blocking her ears though she still overheard everything) Tifa explained her reasoning for being here at Don Corneo's.

Not too long after the three were ushered into Don's main room. Aerith gasped and Cloud looked surprised. Tifa followed their gaze, curious to see what had caught her companion's attention; Tifa saw two muscular bodyguards and a fat blob of a man who must have been Corneo.

What surprised her was the red haired kid sitting on the desk dressed in an untidy suit and red sneakers, looking barely six years old. The boy appeared to be having a quiet conversation with the fat man till the tike saw them, motioning the fatso to look up.

"Alright ladies!" the guy on the left said enthusiastically. "Line up for the Don!"

The fat man leered at them, making Tifa's stomach lurch. The boy gave a disapproving look at the lech but didn't say anything.

"Mm-mm! Splendid!" Corneo said in a oily voice before hopping over to them. He circled them, looking them over like they were pieces of meat. Tifa had to reframe from punching the guy into next year.

Corneo stopped in front of Aerith. "Which girl should I choose?" he said before going over to Cloud. "This one?"

Cloud became visibly uncomfortable, and Tifa saw the boy choke back a laugh. Did he know Cloud wasn't female?

She was brought out of her musings by the ugly visage of Corneo.

"Or this one?" he said, making a show of looking like he was in deep thought.

"It's nearly impossible to decide from such beauties, isn't Corneo?"

Tifa looked back to the boy, still sitting on the desk.

The boy gave a nasty grin. "Why don't you go for blondie?"

Corneo and his men were focused on the red head, so they missed the way Cloud face contorted into pure shock and disgust.

"N-now wait a minute!" Cloud tried but got cut off by the boy.

"Lovely girl, nice rack and she is playing hard-to-get! I'm sure she'll be one _heck_ of a _surprise_ in bed!" the boy said with a wide grin, and by the way he emphasized those words Tifa was now positive he knew Cloud was a guy.

Corneo looked Cloud over, nodding. "Very fine points, my young friend. Very well! Blondie it is!"

Cloud looked ready to murder the boy on the spot. After a quick nod from Tifa and Aerith, Cloud marched after Corneo but paused momentarily near the grinning boy, mouthing, 'I will kill you in your sleep.'

Once they were in the room the two guards began to advance upon her and Aerith. Before she had a chance to defend herself though, the two men dropped to the floor, clutching their nether regions as they cried in pain.

Before the brunette had time to figure out what had happened Aerith spoke. "Really Ambient, was that necessary?"

The red haired boy now stood between the weeping men, holding a stun-gun in his hand. "I don't like pervs."

Putting his gun away, the boy held out his hand to Tifa. "Hi! You must be Tifa Lockhart. Cloud spoke about you! I'm Ambient Loveless, friend of Aerith."

Shaking his hand Tifa spoke, "Nice to meet you. Um, how did you get past the guards? And why didn't Corneo run you out?"

The boy shrugged. "I told them I was here on official Turk business."

"Turk?" Tifa questioned. Kid was way too young to be one of those.

"And they didn't question that?" Aerith said, thinking along the same lines.

"I often come on missions with my brother, so they assumed I worked for them."

Tifa's eyes widened. The boy was related to a Turk?

Aerith seemed to accept that so she asked another question. "Why did you 'volunteer' Cloud to Corneo?"

The kid gave a sad pouty look. "He made fun of my name. My feelings were hurt. Badly."

After a mental note not to make fun of his name the trio broke into Corneo's room to save Cloud, who looked quite ready to grab the nearest blunt object and beat Corneo to death with it.

After a moment of convincing Corneo (by threatening to chop off, rip off, smash and electrocute the fat man's, ahem, assets) they got all the info they needed from him but then got sent down the sewers by a trapdoor.

Tifa to this day still didn't know how it happened but somehow Ambient managed to shot a some kind of materia at Corneo that exploded his junk off, even though the boy insisted he had no idea how he did that.

After the dangerous journey back to sector seven (which lead to Tifa becoming convinced that Ambient was trigger happy with his stun-gun, seeing how he shocked everything that moved), the group had walked into a warzone. Cloud told Aerith and Ambient to go to the bar and wait there with Marlene as he and Tifa raced to the top to aid Barret.

There she met Reno, Ambient's jerkass brother and fought against him. She would never admit it but she had been impressed at how he had held his own against them on a one on three battle.

But even though they won against him, he had succeeded in his task to delay them. And then to make matters worse Aerith was caught by the Turk leader.

After all was said and done, lives lost and they barely escaping with their own Cloud, Barret and herself made it back to Aerith house were Ambient and Marlene were.

At first they planned on breaking in to save Aerith till Ambient told them of another way to get in.

She still didn't know why those guards let them in and gave them door keys for all the way to the top floor after the red head boy spoke to them, nor did she asked seeing how one had fled his post screaming 'The evil one had returned!' at the top of his lunges.

After that Ambient had remained neutral seeing how he had family on the other side (though he had requested that they butchered Hojo. Apparently there was a bad history there), having opt to take care of Marlene instead.

* * *

End of Flashback

* * *

"Tifa?" came a gentle voice.

Tife looked to where Marlene stood, smiling up at her as she served a guest his drink.

"Yes?" the older woman said.

"Denzel and Ambient went to go play. Are the Valentine Triplets here still?"

Before she could reply three sets of feet's came thundering down the stairs.

"Marlene!"

"Sissy!"

"Mar-Mar!"

Marlene let out a loud 'oof' as she was tackled to the ground by three little silver haired boys, earning many chuckles from various guest.

"Kadaj! Yazoo! Loz! Get off the poor girl." Tifa said with a laugh. The three remnants aw-ed.

It had been three months since Sephiroth had been reborn and defeated. That should have made the three silver haired men disappear forever, yet it wasn't so.

When she had visited the church with Marlene Ambient had requested to go with. Tifa knew he wanted to pay his respects to Aerith, who from what she understood was the closest thing he had to a mother figure. She didn't know how they met or how the two even got to know each other but at the time Ambient wasn't apart of Turks and had visited her often when his brother was away on missions.

This lead to meeting and getting her butt handed to her by the at the time adult Loz who then stole Cloud's materia and kidnapped Ambient and Marlene.

Ambient must have played his cards right because the remnants for what ever reason liked him and Marlene.

After the summoning and Cloud chasing after the remnants Tifa had left the children together and chased after Cloud with the former AVALANCHE and friends they had made along the way.

She watched as Cloud and Kadaj's battled, Sephiroth's rebirth and defeat. She watched Cloud hold a dying Kadaj and watched as he began to fade into the life stream.

But a bright blinding light flashed around and when everyone looked back they saw Ambient had appeared. Tifa swore she saw Aerith and Zack standing on either side of him, along with a black haired spectacled man and a red haired woman she didn't recognize.

Later Reno would claim he saw Ambient teleport himself and the other two remnants about two hundred feet into the sky and then free-fall to their deaths but a bright light had made them disappeared. When confronted Ambient swore he had no idea what had happened. Regardless if it had been intentional or not, that little stunt had somehow turned Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz into four year olds.

Vincent surprised everyone by adopting them, saying he owed their original's real mother. The newly minted Valentine Triplets as they were called stayed at the Seventh Heaven, having looked up to Tifa as some sort of surrogate mother, Cloud as a disgruntled older brother along with Denzel and Marlene (minus the disgruntled part), Yuffie a crazy aunt, Berret and Cid as mouthy uncles, and the Turks as wayward cousins.

At first she had been wary to keep them here but soon enjoyed the boys' company. They were little angels really. As long as they didn't stay with Ambient or Reno for too long.

"Come on boys! You can help me by cleaning your room! Marlene will help you." Tifa offered.

The three boys cheered before running back up the stairs, dragging Marlene behind them.

"Those brats sure are a hand full, aren't they?"

Tifa looked to the speaker. "Hello Cid! I wasn't expecting you."

"Just passing through. Had a shipment of sh*t to dump off." The pilot said, taking a deep drag from his cigarette.

The bar keeper nodded before frowning.

"Did you see Ambient and Denzel when you got here?"

Cid looked alarmed. "The Hell Spawn is here? !"

"Be nice. Oh! There they are!" Tifa said, seeing them come through the door.

"Be nice? That little (BEEP)er destroyed my first Tiny Bronco! I still can't (BEEP)ing figure out how he destroyed my poor baby!"

"I'm sure you can figure out how he broke it."

Cid fixed her with a numb stare. "…he somehow liquated the (BEEP)ing engine."

Tifa wasn't sure how to respond to that.

* * *

_A few minutes earlier…_

"We're going to get in trouble."

"Hn."

"Seriously, he'll kill us! Look, we still have time to leave to stop before he sees us."

"…Denzel?"

"Yes Ambient?"

"Kindly shut up and grow a pair, okay? I've done this dozens of times!"

"I know. I also know what happens when you fail."

"One time!"

"That one time nearly turned you into paste because Cid made you his personal test dummy for rocket fuel packs that explode if you go too high!"

"Details."

A loud snap brought the bickering boys back to the subject at hand, which was trying to hotwire Cid's Tiny Bronco II so they could take it for a joyride. The snap came from the fact that Ambient had accidently broke the control unit.

Denzel stared intrepidly at him though Ambient ignored this in favor of writing something on the windshield with a sharpie.

"You are so dead." The brunet said.

"No I'm not. Auntie Yuffie on the other hand is." He said, finishing writing 'YUFFIE WAS HERE'.

The two boys' then ran like hell from the crime scene so that they could establish an alibi.

* * *

Dumbledore sighed, looking every year his age.

This was the year Harry Potter would be going to Hogwarts. The problem was, nobody knew where the boy was.

When the first latter was sent out the spell on it told that it had been opened. He had assumed that Harry had opened the latter and so had sent Hagrid to fetch the boy.

You can imagine the old man's great shock and dismay when the friendly half-giant came back baring ill news. Harry's cousin had opened the letter having thought it was a prank note and that Harry had been missing for the past six years. When he had confronted Petunia about it the woman just said that she had let the boy go play in the park one day and that he had never returned.

Dumbledore was now sending out as many owls as he could, all baring letters that could only be opened by Harry in hopes that they could reached him.

Now he could only sit and wait.

* * *

Bob the ranger watched the oddity in the sky. He had been a ranger for twenty years yet he had never seen this many owls and of such a variety.

The all were swooping around, as though they were trying to find something. Finally one bird swooped down seeming to aim for something between two old tall willow trees.

A sudden ripple of light and the bird disappeared.

A screeching was heard and soon the other birds followed after. One by one the birds went through the arch and disappeared.

Bob blinked rapidly before shaking his head. This was a clear sign that he should never pull three all nighters in a row.

* * *

Yays…I updated! –zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Harry/Ambient will have a unique impact on the series (this isn't canon so please disregard it) and is by large considered a menace to society.

But when your raised by Reno, that's a given.

Thanks to those who ad reviewed, they really make my day!

Thanks for reading!

PD.

.


	3. Owl! It's for Dinner!

Title: The Turk Kid

Author: PiperDreamer

Rated: T

Disclaimer: If you think either of these are mine…you need your head examined.

* * *

_The boy floated in the back of his tube-like prison, crying for the first time since he had been taken in by Reno._

_He winced every time he moved, the spots were they had injected that stuff into him still hurting, his body aching as he felt like he was burning from the inside._

_How long had he been in here? Three months? Felt more like three years. Reno warned him not to go near this place, strictly forbad him yet his curiosity got the better of him._

_He had tagged along with Reno and Rude during their mission. It was a normal thing to do and he had been doing it for the past year now, as long as he didn't get in the way of their work._

_They had gone to an old town called __Nibelheim for a mission and he had been allowed to explore as long as he avoided the Shinra Mansion. As he wandered around the town he over heard the various people talking about how the mansion was haunted and cursed. His curiosity got the better of him and he entered._

_He had barely gotten to the first room when he got attacked by deformed monsters. In his rush to flee he had some how made the creatures disappear. He allows did something strange, something unexplainable. Normally they backfired but at that moment he had been happy his random ability had came through. _

_Now though he was regretting it._

_A crazy psycho called Hojo had seen him use this ability and found it intriguing and had a couple of his men grab him and knock him out. When he regained consciousness he found himself in a cage. He over heard Hojo's helpers talking about him when they passed, stating that he was some part of a project called Jenova Reunion and that they were trying to turn him into a Sephiroth clone. _

_Experiment after experiment and shot after shot full of mako and Ambient was starting to wish that they would just put him out of his misery. Actually he was getting larger then average doses, due to the fact he still had a sense of awareness which was baffling Hojo. Apparently he was an anomaly, seeing how most adult's died with this much experimentation done to them in such short time and most went horribly mad from mako poisoning with the amount they were stuffing into him._

_At this point he wished he was normal; maybe it would allow him to die. _

_The only positive thing he gotten out of this so far was the fact he could see without glasses now. The only good thing about getting loaded with mako was that it had the tendency to fix physical issues such as bad eye sight._

_He shut__ his eyes, wishing the pain away. Was his brother safe? Was he worried about him? Ambient wished he had said goodbye._

_A sudden noise brought the boy out of his tumult thoughts. Looking ahead of his glass container he saw that another prisoner with black hair had busted out and was lying on the floor. A worker walked over, about to touch him but the other prisoner forced himself onto his feet before punching the worker out cold._

_With unsteady steps he moved to the container next to him, draining and opening it. Out fell another man though this one, a blonde, seemed to be in the comatosed state that most of the other prisoners Ambient had seen so far were in._

_The man looked around, taking what looked useful including an absurdly large sword before he started heading for the exit with his friend._

_Ambient didn't even stop to consider that these men were probably insane from mako poisoning or were possibly more dangerous then the scientists; all he knew for sure was that they were trying to escape._

_The black haired man practically jumped when Ambient began to beat his fist against the glass wall. Looking over at him, the black haired man placed his friend on the floor, walking to Ambient's jar._

_The man seemed surprised to see a coherent person, a child no less here as well. Ambient gave a begging look, pointing to the lock._

_Ambient felt joy as the mako began to drain from the jar, and moments later the door opened. Having been a while since he had actually used his feet, it was understandable when Ambient fell forward and was caught by the man. _

"_He was experimenting on a kid? That sick son of a-" the black man mumbled but reframed from finishing that sentence when Ambient stumbled back to his feet. Instead he smiled kindly, helping Ambient._

"_Hey, you okay? What am I saying? Hojo experimented on you; of course you're not okay. Good thing you caught my attention otherwise I would have left you here." the man tried to sound up beat. Unfortunately his smile looked tight and his eyes narrowed. Ambient was guessing that the man was pretty angry about his and his friend's treatment here but somehow was even angrier about seeing a kid who barely looked six being put through this._

"_Th-thank you." Ambient said, his voice hoarse from disuse._

"_We better get out before they find us. I'm Zack Fair by the way, and my friend over there is Cloud Strife." The man introduced, waving to his comatosed friend._

_The boy with faded blackish-red hair smiled and glowing emerald eyes looking back at him. "I'm Ambient Loveless."_

* * *

Ambient awoke with a start, sweat trickling down his back. It had been three years since his captivity, yet he still got recurring nightmares now and again.

He may have been small and undeniably young but he had seen his fair share of nightmares. Nightmares that was unfortunately grounded in reality.

When he had escaped with Zack and Cloud, he had felt both terrified and hopeful. Terrified because if they got caught there would be hell to pay and hopeful because there was a chance to escape.

They got attacked every while, causing Zack to put the doped up Cloud down to fight. Ambient could only stand next to Cloud, fearful for Zack's safety and hating the fact he couldn't even help.

Even when they met up with that Turk woman, Cissnei he had kept his tongue, too scared to talk since she wanted to drag them back. He was just glad she had handed them a set of keys and left at that.

But he would never forget the day Zack died. That was one piece of his life he never wanted to relive.

Shaking his head of his dreary thoughts he rolled back in bad. It was five in the morning, he still had another hour of sleeping to go.

* * *

Cloud had finally finished his delivery and was heading back to Midgar. As always he stopped at the Aerith church to pay his respect to Aerith and Zack.

After the Remnants of Sephiroth had been taken care of and the children cured, the church had been fixed up, holes gone and the structure sound again. The flowers had grown greater, over the first pews and starting up the wall and circling Zack's blade and the sparkling pool of water. He came to visit every time he was in the city, and when he wasn't he knew it was in good hands till he got back.

He stopped at the door, took one look at the place and groaned palming his forehead. "Loveless…"

One either side of the old Buster blade, two humongous tapestries hung from ceiling to floor that most assuredly hadn't been there when he last visited.

One the right was Aerith, in her garden looking serene and well…like a loving goddess. Probably didn't help that she had what appeared to be a halo of light above her head, the Life stream flowing like a gentle breeze around her giving her an ethereal appearance.

The Zack Fair, striking a heroic pose as he held the Buster Blade high in a victorious manner, stood on top of a heap of SOLDIER's. Cloud rolled his eyes when he noticed that there was a second figure, this one was near the bottom of the pile leaning against them, seemingly asleep.

_Why does he always make my hair so dang spiky?_ The blonde mused as he critiqued the other Cloud, silently amused at his extreme hair.

Though he was not very fond of the kid, Ambient was only one person Cloud really trusted to take care of the church and its flowers. He had been friends with Aerith longer then he had and had been close to Zack. He had cried and nearly destroyed the landscape when both had died and refused to let them be less then a memory.

Though Cloud found it touching the way he tried to ensure everyone remembered them, the boy took it to insane levels at times, thus the tapestries. At least he wasn't trying to brain wash the kids at that school anymore; the religions 'Aerith-ism' and 'Saint Zack' were just pushing it too far.

When he finally had recalled his real memories, Cloud had been shocked to find Ambient in them. Though he only vaguely recalled Ambient throughout their escape with Zack. He was a small, timid child who tried his best to help no matter what. What the heck changed that? Sure he was still helpful (in his strange and annoying way) but it like all traces of that boy had disappeared.

Though he was sure that captivity had something to do with it, Zack's death had been a huge hit to the boy. He remembered, piercingly of the boy's reaction when Zack had died.

Part of him had been glad he had forgotten that the first time because it wasn't just heart retching to see that kid practically fall apart from grief, it had been downright frightening. Cloud still to this day doesn't know if it the fact the kid was a walking mako bomb or if he had been part of another possibly more sinister and lethal project.

Either way Ambient's grief had somehow turned the down pour they had been in into a hurricane; green lightning had struck in quick and randomly looking like a massive spider web, the winds threaten to take them with it as it as the rain pelted against them hard and fast as the swirling vortex seemed to grow in size.

Then suddenly it stopped, and Ambient wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Cloud sighed. He came here to relax and say hello, not try and figure out what had turned that kid into a red haired spawn.

_So this brings me back to the original question; how the heck do I get rid of these? _He thought, eyeing the tapestries.

"Hoot!"

On instinct Cloud drew his sword before hearing many more 'hoots'. Looking up he found that there were dozens of owls, all looking around as though trying to find something.

Cloud was fairly sure Ambient wasn't behind this; to the kid this church was as sacred as it got and just barely tolerated Red 13 in here.

Then one of the owls screeched and flew out the door. Soon the rest followed till none were left. Cloud blinked, not sure why they were even in there but decided to ensure the doors stayed shut, just in case.

He didn't need Ambient yelling at him and pranking him for getting animals in the church.

* * *

The peaceful morning was destroyed by the sound of an air horn going off.

The blaring noise caused Ambient, who was fast asleep to jerk out of bed and fall to the floor.

Reno, air horn in hand grinned brightly at his sibling. "Good morning Ambient! Today in our forecast we will be experiencing muggy weather and a quick cold revenge! Remember to dress warmly and to stay away from the guy that can make your life a living hell just because he can!"

"(BEEP) it Reno! What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?" Ambient yelled, throwing a shoe at Reno.

Reno grin turned nasty. "Consider that pay back for how you woke me up yesterday."

"Oh come on! You still sore about that?"

"You put a live bass in my jockey shorts. Be glad I didn't go with my original plan to tie you naked to Seven Heaven's window."

Putting the can away (and duly ignoring the shouts of their neighbors) Reno turned to head for the shower but called over his shoulder.

"Rude should be here soon and Tseng wants you there this morning. What's for breakfast?"

"Eggs, bacon and hash. Now take a shower; you stink." Ambient said, getting off the floor.

Grumbling Ambient went about getting dressed. The boy looked in the mirror that stood above his dresser.

A boy somewhere between seven and possibly nine stared back (to be perfectly honest he had no clue how old he was so he and Reno just estimated by his appearance alone), messy red hair that reached down to his shoulders stuck up everywhere from a bad case of bed head, and emerald green eyes that glowed in the dark peered back at him.

Truth be told he didn't like his eyes. Sure the color was fine and it helped with making people believe he and Reno were related but it was the glowing that ticked him off. It was a permanent reminder of what had happen to him in Shinra Mansion.

Getting dressed quickly, Ambient sighed. No point living in the past when there was a future to build.

Walking to the kitchen the boy rummaged around the cupboards, taking out the right pans and setting about getting breakfast.

After a few minutes a knock was heard.

"It's unlocked." Ambient called, starting the bacon. Anyone else would have locked their door but not Reno and Ambient. First off, the most expensive thing they owned was the TV and second nobody was crazy or desperate enough to want to steal from a Turk. Especially if they were Reno and Ambient.

A large man walked in. "Hello."

"Hey Rude!" Ambient greeted. "I just started making breakfast! Pull up chair and have some."

The silent Turk nodded and sat on the couch. Reno's apartment was a two bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen and living-room meaning there was no place for an actual table so the living-room doubled as a dining-room. Rude was their neighbor from across the hall so he often ate breakfast here, not because he couldn't cook (when Ambient wasn't around to cook Reno bugged him to) but Ambient's cooking was better then his.

"Sorry if we woke you, Reno was being a jerk. Reno!" Ambient yelled, scrambling the eggs. "Your gonna miss breakfast!"

When he received no response, Ambient snarled. "If you don't get out here I will start citing Loveless!"

A second Reno finally emerged, looking much like he had slept in his suit.

"Yo." Greeted the red head before plopping onto the comfy chair across from his partner. Ambient smiled cheerfully.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Reno flipped him off.

Rude smiled. The boy absolutely loved that book, to the point Rude was sure he could quote the entire book, word for word. This utter love for the literature known as Loveless served Ambient well; not only did reading this book kept Ambient quiet and still for a good hour, but when he started quoting it Reno would do whatever he had to do to get his brother to shut up.

Apparently Reno developed an extreme dislike for the book after he had unwisely insulted Ambient's given name by calling it sissy and Ambient had decided to go on an Annoy-Reno Campaign involving trapping Reno in the apartment and read Loveless.

Over and over and over again.

For a month straight.

Needless to say Reno was overjoyed when his vacation ended and swore he would never make fun of his brother's name.

Though Tseng looked very angry when Reno had collected every Loveless book he could find and torched them though both Elena and Rude found it funny that Reno, their most annoying, smart ass, walking oxymoron troublemaker of a colleague that had at one point or another been the reason they've all gone to therapy, got annoyed by only one person; his own brother.

Breakfast soon came in and Reno was instantly all sunny and shine. Soon the trio was eating the breakfast.

"So," Reno started, "I heard their trying to keep you from going to the next semester at school."

"Really gotta stop trying, those dumb (BEEP). They should know by now Rufus and Tifa are bent on me getting an education." Ambient said with a mouth full.

Rude wisely stayed silent. He knew all too well how much Mr. Morten wanted Ambient out and would sell his kidney to the black market to see him go and knew that Ambient didn't much care for school. He just went because of a few simple facts; Tifa had asked, Rufus wouldn't let him become an official Turk without at least a high school education, Marlene wanted him to go so that she had someone besides Denzel, Denzel wanted somebody with an actual IQ to talk to but probably the biggest reason was a certain flower girl who had said that everyone needed an education.

Breakfast was finished in record time and the trio left the building. Rude drove, seeing how Ambient was under aged and Reno's driving was so scary it could kill SOLDIER's.

Reaching the Shinra HQ, the trio made their way up the tall building. Soon they were before Rufus' secretary. Much to their amusement Elena was there as well, arguing with the secretary.

"For the last time, let me in. I'm running late thanks to you." Elena said, looking very much like she was going to dropkick this woman out a window.

"Do you have an appointment with President Shinra?" the secretary monotone, sounding much like she was reading from a script.

"I'm a Turk, I don't need an appointment."

"I'm sorry but the president can't see you right now." The woman replied, looking smug.

Ambient frowned. He knew this secretary; she always hit on the guys and made life hell for other women, thinking she was god's gift to man.

"Great, the company mattress is picking the wrong fight again." Reno muttered.

Agreeing with his brother but not wanting to run late Ambient walked forward till he was standing in front of the secretary and made eye contact.

_Go get the adorable red headed boy candy, and food for five people._ Ambient mentally ordered.

The secretary gaze had gone strangely blank for a moment before she blinked, smiling brightly. "Why don't I get you food and candy?"

As she left Elena gave the boy a pleased look. "You messed with her head, didn't you?"

"I made a suggestion!"

Ever since he had escaped captivity, Ambient had a strange ability he developed that allowed him to 'see' memories and to give telepathic messages and plant suggestions. He didn't understand how it worked nor did he really question it seeing how it was handy.

Walking in Ambient saw that Tseng was already there, standing at attention in front of Rufus, and the WRO founder Reeve's was sitting on a nearby chair.

Many members of AVALANCHE had slowly integrated itself into the WRO, picking up there goal to save and preserve Gaia.

It was a noble cause; one Ambient dearly wished he could partake in. But after Denzel had that interview with Reeve the man had decided to not to enlist children into WRO. It was probably for the best; the Turks would probably drop dead from shock if he were to quit and Rufus would cry his head off if his Finance officer upped and left.

It was a simple meeting (only interrupted by the secretary bring food and candy) about missions and the financial and possible projects that could be implemented that would benefit the planet. As they talked, Ambient's mind wandered back to the day he became a Turk.

* * *

Tseng once told Ambient that Rufus Shinra was the sort of man you had to squint at before you could call him a decent soul (he made it pretty damn clear though that Old Man Shinra was one giant (beep); Reno was right, Tseng was just sooo amusing when drunk).

And when Ambient, at somewhere of six and nine years of age met the newly instated President of Shinra he shook his hand as strongly as a small child of his stature could and wasted no time in repeating this assessment right to his face. Out of the corner of the boys eye he saw Tseng stand up straighter. Reno who stood behind the young president was trying his dangest to keep from laughing, making a gagging noise as he suppressed his mirth. The President did not respond noticeably, only peered at Ambient, though it did take him a moment too long to let go of his hand, and Ambient recognized that for the success it was.

Reno's Survival Guide 101: #16: If you managed to stun them into silence and to stop moving, you have either impressed them or peeved them. In the event you ticked them off, delegate blame.

"Or at least that's what I've heard from the rumor will," he added, face honest and attentive.

Tseng was not even slightly fooled, and Ambient noted the man's formidable 'if-you-were-my-subordinate-I'd-cut-your-salery' expression (which seems only to ever be aimed at Reno and him, though Reno normally got the Look-of-Doom). Ambient nearly gulped, knowing Reno was going to get one of those 'talks' for letting him wander around Turks head quarters again. Old Man Shinra had hated seeing him around and Ambient steered clears of everyone else (especially the science floor). Rufus caught the look passed between the two, and Ambient smiled in embarrassment at being caught.

Reno's Survival Guide 101: #36: If caught between two evils, try the one you've never done before.

"But you do look like a sensible and all around good guy to me." And, resigning himself to the beat down of the century, he made his smile earnest and turned it on Tseng. Caught, the man's eyes grew large and his lips grew so thin they nearly disappeared.

The President's other eyebrow joined the first as a slow smile found its way onto his face.

"Mr. Loveless," Rufus Shinra addressed him. He sounded very amused. "You wouldn't happen to be in the market for a job, would you?"

After that day, the Turks had a new member and Tseng had to take a lot of Tylenol, prescription drugs, and probably illegal narcotics to deal with what was to come.

* * *

"-ient…Ambient!"

The boy jerked before focusing on his surroundings. Everyone was looking at him.

"Did you hear anything we just discussed?"

"Uhhhh…you were saying that a new water purifier for Midgar would prove useful?" the boy said, having read Reno's and Rude's hand signs. Unless you had a your own purifier, the entire city relied on the Water Processing Plant. During the meteor the plant had gotten hit, not badly enough to destroy it or stop it from functioning but the residents can tell the waters dirty and has a metallic taste to it.

"That's right. As our Chief Financial Officer for ShinRa Inc. can you tell us the amount we'd need?"

A look of no-nonsense appeared on the boys face. "Do you have the documents?"

"Right here."

Getting up he walked to the papers and begun to look it over, ignoring Reeve giving his boss a disapproving glare.

Reeve's honestly didn't like the idea of working children and had been quite persistent when it came to him. The man looked shock when he found out that a waif of a boy was in the ranks of the Turks and had tried to convince Rufus to let him go so that he could enjoy a normal childhood. Upon hearing this Ambient had gave a mirthless laugh.

He had ran away from his relatives at a young age after being told he was the result prostitution due to his mother being a druggy whore who lived with her boyfriend, a jobless abusive drunk and that they both died in a car accident after dumping him on his aunt's doorstep.

He couldn't really remember on how he got to Midgar but the end results were worth it. Reno wasn't perfect but he was the best thing that ever happened to Ambient, as were the Turks, Aerith and even AVALANCHE.

But even if he had never known about his origins he knew he could never have a normal childhood. Not after the Shinra Mansion. Events form our personality and this one _definitely_ formed his.

It was better to move forward and to adapt then to stay put and stagnate.

After several more minutes of careful inspection the boy looked up, eyes glowing magnificently. "Would this be using the main valve or an entirely different one?"

"It would be using the main valve."

"Why?"

"Because if we use the main, we can save on material and get the purifier up and working in no time. With clean water available faster." Reeve explained.

"The pipes aren't in the best shape. It would cost more _now_, but getting some of those pipes fixed or even replaced would be more beneficial then holding it off. In the long run, it would be cheaper to replace them now then when they give out entirely thus stopping clean water from reaching the denizens. And if this works, we can take the purifier to other cities."

Rufus nodded, approving. "Then we should make a temporary valve till the repairs are made."

"Budget says you can." The boy said, grinning cheekily.

Reeve nodded, though he was starting to wonder of Rufus had ever read the Overlord List and had implemented number twelve when he hired Ambient. The boy seemed to have a knack in finding holes and keeping the budget in check.

After nearly an hour, Rufus closed the meeting but stopped Ambient from taking off to do god only knows. "Aren't you going to school?"

Ambient gave a pout. "But its nine! I already missed the first two classes!"

"I already sent a transmission to his secretary to inform them you will be later then the other students."

"What!"

Rufus rolled his eyes. "Ambient, you nine-"

Elena interrupted. "Seven."

"Six." Tseng said.

"Eight." Rude dinged to say.

"I thought he was five years old." Reeve said, looking at the boy of questionable age.

Knowing this could go down hill fast, Reno was quick to act. "Come on squirt. I'm taking you."

Ambient took the distraction for what it was worth. Reno's Survival Guide: # 09: If you find yourself in an uncomfortable territory, flee under guise of doing a job.

The two red heads were gone before anyone could react.

* * *

Screams of undiluted horror could be heard, sirens of police and screeching of tires and people dropping like flies from shock after just seeing the nightmare-inducing sight that had drove past them like some demented wraith that sucked the courage out of you and replaced it with undeterred dread of knowing, knowing that if you didn't get out of the way you'd become a bloody smear on the road or worse, a bystander who survived the tribulation.

To Ambient though, who sat in the front seat unbuckled and focusing pointy on the dashboard in order not to get sick or to start hyperventilate, was used to how Reno drove and knew how to handle such a frightening ordeal. So far they had managed to loose the cops again, though this may have something to do with the fact Reno had yet to release the accelerator since they had left and had accidently took out a bridge on the way. They had taken a company car, meaning they were in a virtual tank that was armed and looked like a spy car. In other words, nothing short of a nuke would stop them.

"Hey brother," Ambient said, as he shifted his body when Reno took a really sharp turn.

"Yeah?" Reno said, looking away from the road, barely missing a motorcycle.

"Well, today is show-n-tell day, and I was kinda wondering," he paused momentarily to stop the sense of vertigo as Reno played chicken with a road barrier and won, still not looking at the road, "could I take you? You'd only havta stand there, give a small introduction and show everyone just how cool you are."

Truth be told, Ambient wanted to show off his brother to who he was very proud of and aspired to be like in some ways. True he still fully plans to destroy cities, run governments to ruin and become known as a world terror like Sephiroth but that was a long term goal.

That and Reno had once attended this school too, though Reno had said he was a rebellious prankster, he had heard rumors from the older staff members of the school that Reno was a godless terror during his time at the school, easily rivaling Ambient's records.

Reno grinned, hitting a group of thugs.

"Sure thing!" and with that he returned to looking at the road and Ambient took deep breaths.

By the time they arrived it was nine-twenty, and the brothers managed to make it to the classroom where an old lady with tightly pulled back gray hair known as Ms. Creech who looked like she was perpetually sucking on a moldy lemon. The old lady had the most inhospitable face one could imagine; and as she shot a look at Ambient it was pretty clear she thought he was the devil himself.

"Um, hi Ms. Creech. This is my brother. I brought him for show-n-tell." Ambient said, staying out of reach of her ruler.

"So you're his brother?" She said, pointing to Ambient as though he was the scum of Gaia to which Reno nodded. She gave Reno a disapproving look, "Shoddy and ill kept clothes. Obviously a bachelor. At least Loveless doesn't look like he just fell out of bed."

The two waited their turn, watching in bordom as various kids brought various items for show-n-tell. Finally it was their turn.

"Finally, I thought I'd get to her age before we got our chance." Ambient said, getting a solid wack on the head from a scowling Creech.

"You delinquents should learn your place! You'll never amount to anything!"

Reno rolled his eyes, muttering about old senile hags that were too stuck up before focusing on the eager children. "Hi, I'm Reno, Ambient's brother and one of the Turks and today I'm here as-"

"My show-n-tell!" Ambient said proudly.

The entire class and both Turks turned at the sound of Ms. Creech letting out a high pitch screech, eyes glaring at Reno with unfathomable fury. Ambient gulped. If she always looked at him as though he was the devil, why was she looking at Reno as though he was the root of all evil?

"I knew you looked familiar!" The old one snarled. "You were the single most unruly, undisciplined, pranking god awful juvenile delinquent that had ever darkened our school!"

"Wait, the rumors about when my brother attended school here being a walking disaster terror is true?" Ambient said excited.

"You're the same old hag that was here when I attended this god forsaken school! You're still alive?" Reno could hardly believe it.

"You ingrate!" The old hag seethed, waving her ruler around as though it was a weapon. "I knew, even as everyone else partied at you graduating that you would become an unleaded nightmare fuel that made even the goriest of wars pale in comparison! You've been amassing an army of kids like Ambient haven't you? It's a Shinra plot, I just know it! Their making hundreds of clones of you to wipe out humanity by driving us to the brinks of insanity!"

"I see your still have your wild theories about me being the Anti-christ. On that note, Pyramid!" Ms. Creech found herself trapped inside a triangular force field, and nobody wanting to break her out. The children stared in awe as the meanest of teachers got taken down in one move.

Reno grinned in a cheeky manner as Ambient began making a call on his cellphone.

"For show-n-tell, I like to demonstrate how to shut up crazy old bats who should have retired eons ago. As Ambient can tell ya, being a Turk means you are automatically cooler then everyone else and can get away with anything. In fact, let's have another demonstration of our omniscient like authority. Turk Ambient?"

The boy finished his hasty call, grinning like mad. "They'll be here in five, Turk Reno."

The children looked confused, some giggling at seeing Ms. Creech screaming and ranting soundlessly as se smacked the ruler against the pyramid in vain.

A moment later the sounds of sirens were heard, followed a moment later by a group of men in white. Within ten minutes they had Ms. Creech diagnosed for post traumatic stress and long term and untreated condition similar to Battle Fatigue. They had to tranquilizer her to keep her from fighting.

As soon as she was hauled away, leaving the two red head Turks at the head of the class, sporting identical grins.

"He who has power can run amok without fear of normal people stopping them." Reno said with flourish.

"And that's my show-n-tell! So remember boys and girls, If you don't wanna a lame-o job that'll eventually make ya go berserk, than enlist today as a Turk!" Ambient said, looking proud as a peacock.

The students cheered having decided they wanted to be like them, and in the far off distant future Tseng prescription amount tripled as Elena prematurely grayed.

* * *

School had gone by fast, and soon the kids were released, happily buzzing about the day's events.

Ambient, Denzel and Marlene walked back to Seventh Heaven, talking ardently. He told them of the WRO idea of fixing the piping and purifying the water.

Soon the trio was back at the friendly bar and Marlene walked in to see if she could help out inside. That and to establish an alibi because Ambient kleptomania had kicked in and he was currently raiding a expenses looking car of its goods and parts.

Denzel watched on sighing at his friends antics.

"You have no morals, do you?"

"I have plenty! They just tend to look away at precise moments."

Denzel scoffed.

"Let me guess; Reno taught you how to break into the cars and buildings."

"He gave me a beginners book, but it was Yuffie who really helped me. Girl could steal the clothes off your back if you took your eyes off her for even a moment!"

This was true, as Ambient could attest. After calling her 'No-Tits' she had preceded to scrip him of all his belongings and left him in the middle of nowhere while he was conscious. He was still embarrassed about the fact he walked around bare-bottom naked for an hour before he realized he was in his birthday suit.

Having gotten the lock undone he raided the car, finding several useful items and gil.

"Hey Denzel, want this baton-OOF!"

Ambient didn't get a chance to finish his sentense because he was suddenly tackled by three little boys, knocking him to the ground.

"Cousin!" Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz squealed happily.

"Hey, brats! Hows it going?"

"Tifa taught as how to make mac and cheese!"

"It was messy!"

"And yummy!"

Ambient chuckled with Denzel as they listened to the small boys chatter. As he listened Ambient recalled how the trio ended up in his life.

Back when Denzel was sick with Geostigma, jobs in Turks were scarce and Cloud was being a aloof jerk stuck in the past Ambient had wanted to go to the church to pay his respects to Aerith, his first friend and mother figure. Upon getting there he and the others, Tifa and Marlene found that Cloud had apparently been camping here for sometime and was suffering from Geostigma.

They decide to wait for Cloud (so they could chew him a new one and hopefully get one good shot for shocking his knads) when the door busted open, revealing a adult Loz who upon spotting them demanded to know where 'mother' was.

This lead to the fight between Loz and Tifa, with Tifa getting soundly beaten, Ambient and Marlene getting kidnapped.

In the interest of staying alive and to help the Turks find the tracking device Rude had thoughtfully sewn into his clothing, Ambient had asked the remnants if he and Marlene could be adopted into their family, seeing how they spoke so highly of their loving 'mother' and Ambient and Marlene never had mothers to start with.

The three silver haired men looked surprised to hear that they didn't have mothers and thanks to carefully said words and extremely convincing acting, Ambient made it sound like they came from extremely dysfunctional families, had no one but themselves to lean on and were in dire need of a real family.

This lead to Loz keeping both by his side as Kadaj preached about the wonders of his mother, and both Marlene and he acted to be in total awe of it all.

To be honest, he thought the remnants were okay guys, just mislead.

When Yazoo came with a truck load of kids, it took a lot of his willpower to not run over to Denzel and smack some sense back into the infected boy and a great deal more to keep both him and Marlene from aiding Cloud.

Ambient may be a decent fighter, but he knew his limitations and at that time going against any of the remnants would have gotten his butt soundly kicked and left Marlene in danger.

So instead he went for the next best plan; attack Cloud. This made it look like he really was helping the remnants and it allowed him to use his strange power to mentally show Cloud the next move they had planned, as well as pass on Marlene's message. He still thought it was adorable the way she mimic her dad.

This didn't get them saved, but it put both Marlene and him in the remnants good grace and got them shipped off with Denzel and the other brainwashed kids. This lead them to going back to Midgar, witnessed Kadaj summon Bahamut SIN, watched his brother and his partner battle Yazoo and Loz, cheered when Cloud and AVALANCHE took down the summons and almost screamed when Rufus leap off the building.

Only Rufus was secure enough in his men to willing jump of a frickin' skyscraper and expect them to catch him.

As he watched the three silver haired men rush off with Jenova's head, Cloud in hot pursue with Reno and Rude chasing after them in a helicopter.

Hating not being able to help he left Marlene in the care of a coherent Denzel, stole a vehicle and chased after the fleeing men as well.

He thanked all the driving lessons that Reno forced him to take as he sped like a demon across the city, nearly running people over in his hurry. When he got to a bridge that wasn't far from were his brother crashed the helicopter he felt his heart stop all together from the fact that the two Turks fully intended to blow up the bridge (and by proxy, themselves) to buy Cloud more time.

He couldn't explain it, he just couldn't. All he knew was that at that moment he would have destroyed the world in a heart beat if it meant keeping Reno safe and god help anybody dumb enough to step in his way. The urge to fly to them came unbidded, and it took all of his reasoning to stop himself from jumping off the side of the bridge. A loud snap and a tug on his naval later and he and the remnants were suddenly free falling from the sky, a good few hundred feet. Moments later he was engulfed in light and seconds later was standing in some strange garden with white and yellow flowers.

Loz and Yazoo were asleep, looking peaceful.

Looking around Ambient was saw two faces he never thought he'd see again.

Zack and Aerith stood before then, alive and well. Not far from the two was another pair, a man with messy black hair and dark eyes with a woman who had flaming red hair and emerald eyes.

He did't really pay the couple a glance, tackling his mother-figure and savior in a fierce hug.

After conversing with his old friends Ambient was told he would be going back to the living. Ambient looked over to were Loz and Yazoo slept, asking if they would be coming back. When they said no Ambient felt sadden. He told them that they were just kids trapped in adult's bodies who wanted to make their mom happy but were so badly manipulated that they just didn't know right from wrong. Shouldn't these guys get a second chance too?

Aerith seemed to agree with him because she had allowed them to come back as children.

As he began to return, the messy haired man and green eyed woman told him they would be watching over him.

He had no idea who they were but felt like he should have.

Upon returning, he gave his friends and brother vague answers to their questions, seeing how even he didn't understand all that transpired.

So thus the remnants stayed with them, being very much the children they were.

He enjoyed playing with them; though their 'daddy' just about shot him when he taught them how to hotwire a car and have they tell the police that captured them that Vincent taught them that.

After the boys stopped telling their day to them, Ambient spoke.

"So, whatcha doing now?"

"Cousin! You promised to play with us!" Kadaj pouted.

"Yeah! You said you'd teach us how to shoot guns!" Yazoo said, looking quite eager to get his tiny hands on said weapons.

"Don't be a liar!" Loz threw in his two gil.

Ambient looked around, hoping to see something that would catch the remnants-turn-four-years-old attention.

"Hey, what's that?" Denzel said.

Looking at the boy, the red head saw that he was looking up so he followed his line of sight.

There, in a distance was a bunch of birds, flying their way. A grin broke out over Ambient's face. Taking out guns that held blank cases, the boy spoke.

"Great news! I have three BB guns for you kids to use and ideal targets! See those birds?" he said as he handed the boys the guns. Getting nods he continued.

"That's the target practice! The first to shoot down the most birds gets a prize!"

The three boys cheered before pointing their respective weapons at the flying birds, grinning the whole way.

The air was ramped with the sounds of the guns going off and the birds screeching a loud "Hoot!" every time they hit one.

"I think you're hitting owls." Denzel commented, watching as the sky soon filled with feathers.

Then a bird dropped in front of them, featherless and wheezing.

Knelling to the bird, Ambient looked it over with care. "Yup that's an owl alright. Strange though, because owls aren't native to Midgar nor do they travel in large groups like that."

"Hey, it has a note, Ambient." Denzel commented, untying a letter.

"What kind of idiot uses animals to deliver letters?" Ambient said, holding up the shaking owl.

"Don't know but this letter is addressed to a 'H.J. Potter'…ring any bells?"

The green eyed boy looked thoughtful, trying to recall anyone by that name. After a minute he shrugged.

"Nope." He shrugged, opening the letter in his hand, not noticing when the letters on the envelope shimmered.

"Why are you opening it?"

"Because it looks like all the birds were carrying them, meaning either these guys are really weird or it's a villain organization sending letters in an unconventional way." Ambient replied, handing the letter over to Denzel as he fixed his grip on the owl.

Shrugging the older boy looking the letter over. After reading the contains he frowned, rolling his eyes then promptly ripped the letter into several small pieces, which he tossed onto the ground.

"You can forget the whole 'villain organization' idea; some moron was sending phony school invitations."

"This many?" Ambient asked, looking at the dozens of owls as he stroked the wing of the one he was currently holding.

"Probably got a face full of mako."

"Hn, probably. Okay boys! That's enough!"

The three little boys stopped, all grinning happily, especially Yazoo.

"I won!" the gunner of the three cheered, getting a nasty look from Loz and Kadaj.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Heading off the bickering Ambient stood up with his now calmed owl.

"You all did great! Now grab some owls and let's head back to the Seventh Heaven! We're having barbeque drum sticks tonight!"

The owl in his arms looked alarm, eyes bulging and giving a loud 'hoot!'

* * *

HAPPY NEW YEARS!...zzzzzzz…

PD

.


	4. Riot and Plucking Phoenix's

Title: The Turk Kid

Author: PiperDreamer

Rated: T

Disclaimer: If you think either of these are mine…you need your head examined.

* * *

Dumbledore was in a rare state of mind, one he did not like at all. He was perplexed.

In the course of one week he had sent out no less then three dozens owls, some with trackers on them yet all had mysteriously vanished somewhere around the old park that the Dursley's lived near.

This did not bode well for him seeing how the only thing he could think that could make trackers disappear was ancient and foul magic.

So here he was, accompanied by Fawkes, Snape, Lupin and McGonagall in the area that the birds kept disappearing at.

They had just finished questioning the Dursley's, to which Petunia made it clear that she had no clue where young Harry disappeared to nor had she cared if he was found.

"Horrid, horrid people." McGonagall seethed.

"Petunia did all she could do, Minerva. She had called the authority to inform them that Harry had disappeared and had absolutely no way to contact us for help." Dumbledore replied.

"She only admitted that after I threaten to give her warts and a goiter, and even then she only did it out of fear of what the Wizarding World would do if she hadn't at least tried." Snape replied, looking very much like he wanted to be anywhere but out here. He never liked Petunia, and always had a violent urge to turn her into a hamster and then dump her into a pot of Venomous Tentacula.

"For all we know, Lily and James son didn't run away, they killed him and hid the body!" McGonagall fumed.

Her words though did make Lupin flinch.

Lupin, upon finding out that Harry had been missing for six years had not taken the news well, at all seeing how he shredded, hexed, cursed and pulverized everything in Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore had to stun him four times before he finally dropped from his rampage.

Now after a week of searching nonstop he looked even more haggard then ever thanks to driving himself to near exhaustion trying to find his pseudo-nephew.

When Dumbledore had said he had possibly found a trail he had practically leap for the chance, even if it meant working with Snape. He just hoped Harry was safe. Who knows what the poor boy had been through in six years?

"Nonsense, Minerva. Snape had looked into her memories to see if they could find the boy. She had been truthful about not knowing where to find him." Dumbledore tried, vainly to pacify the Gryphon woman.

Snape on the other hand was dealing with conflicting views.

He had always assumed that any spawn of Potter's would be just as much of a attention-seeking prat as their father, if not more so thanks to becoming a legendary figure at the age of one. When he had first heard that the boy had runaway from home he assumed that he just wasn't getting pampered to his likings. But upon seeing Petunia-The-Horse-Faced-Hag again and skimming over her memories, he had felt ill. The boy had been malnourished, miserable, and bullied by his cousin while his aunt verbally abused him.

It had been so eerily like his own childhood he had wanted to retch. Preferably right on Lily's sister.

Though when he got to the memory of Petunia outright lying to the boy about Lily being a heartless harlot, he drew the line.

He had waited till Dumbledore was out of sight before he did go through with his threat to give her warts and a goiter, along with a hex on the door for her whole family that would cause then to constantly see their house as the most freakish thing ever. Ah the beauty of mind tricks.

The three were brought out of their respective mindset by Dumbledore tying a note with a portkey on it to Fawkes leg.

"It's up to you Fawkes. Find Harry Potter." Dumbledore said.

The phoenix chirped before flying off. He flew into circles several times before landing on a branch, looking around as though trying to find something.

Dumbledore frowned, feeling worried. Was whatever hiding Harry and making the owls disappear interfering with Fawkes?

Then the birds let out a high pitched keen before shooting forward from his branch, diving towards the arch of a great oak. Before he made it under the branches though he disappeared in what looked like a shimmering ripple before it too disappeared as though it had never happened.

For a moment three wizards and witch just stared at the spot the fire bird disappeared into.

Then Snape spoke. "I volunteer Lupin into following Fawkes."

* * *

Ambient sat in the class, bored. The teacher was yammering about something unimportant and by the glazed looks he saw from the rest of the class they weren't faring any better.

Ambient sighed, popping in a piece of gum. Why did he go here again? It was so boring! Why wasn't he taking higher levels of schooling? But then again, if word got out he was intelligent then people like Mr. Morten would die from fatal aneurysms due to the idea that the resident troublemaker was one of the reasons the President was back on top. This often lead to people asking how he could be bright yet so dumb.

The answer was simple; like Reno, Ambient was of the obfuscating stupidity variety.

Rude, Marlene, Denzel, Cloud, Rufus and possibly Tseng were some of the few who knew that the Red Headed Idiot Brothers (as they were often dubbed) were actually highly intelligent individuals. The brothers just didn't care and would rather be seen as idiots because idiots were consider not as big threats and weren't given more responsibility.

Gaia knows he needed their guard drop for when he took over.

"Loveless! Are you paying attention?" Mr. Molley, the teacher yelled.

The boy jerked slightly, staring at him through bored eyes. "Depends; did you decide to liven your lesson up a bit?"

Mr. Molley glared at the boy. "Okay, wise guy. Tell me what the opposite of energy is."

Ambient gave the man a lazy eye before speaking.

"E=mc^2 where E=energy, m=mass and c = the speed of light (having value 300000 km/s approximately) the Equation for the Mean or just eqn for those of inferior memory recall is trying to say that the energy and the mass can be converted into each other. Suppose you have 1 gram mass and if you destroy it completely then the energy released from the process will be = 1*10^ (-3)*300000*3600= whatever the value be,"

Many of the students were now giving him a look that clearly stated they had no idea what he was saying,

"Here 10^ (-3) is for converting grams to kg and 3600 is because the speed of light is 300000 kmps so we've convert that to kmph. Now just imagine that you have amount of some energy (the value of E obtained above)! Then what..?"

Now the teacher looked confused by the red heads words.

"From the eqn above you can convert that energy into mass and the amount of mass will be obvious = 1 gram. That's all."

Everyone jumped when Ambient suddenly yelled, "THE OPPOSITE OF ENERGY IS MASS AND VICE-VERSE!…You can convert them into each other. Can I go now? All this vilification on your sub-level intelligence is thirsty work."

"Uh, yes?" the man said, unsure.

And there were times Ambient loved to show he was in fact smarter then the average adult. It made them look utterly stupid.

Leaving the classroom, the boy smiled cheekily as he headed for the upper halls.

As he made his way up, he pulled out a worn yet well cared for book that had many notes written in it, theories and facts within the pages of his beloved book.

"When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end

The goddess descends from the sky  
Wings of light and dark spread afar  
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting."

Ambient slowed his steps, reading out loud his favorite book as he felt his mind wander into the theories and ideals Loveless beheld.

"The Infinite mystery  
The gift of the goddess is what the three men seek  
But their fates are scattered by war

One becomes a hero, one wanders the land  
And the last is taken prisoner

But the three are still bound by a solemn oath  
To seek the answer together, once again."

To this Ambient saw himself standing before two men, one had the appearance of a SOLDIER and the other a strange cloaked man with red eyes. He the hero, the SOLDIER the wanderer and the cloaked man the prisoner.

He was no longer in the halls but on a grand quest to find the Gift of the Goddess and to reunite his fellows who had sworn to discover the Gift they all vowed to find-

_**BRIIIIIIING!**_The boy jumped, nearly dropping his book as the lunch bell rang out thus forcing him back into reality. Seconds later the halls were flooded with children, running and racing to the lunchroom.

Ambient sighed as he went to put his book away when he was pushed roughly, making him spill his bag onto the floor.

"Watch where you're going, pipsqueak!" a bigger boy yelled, glaring at the smaller boy.

"Sorry Butch, it's just so hard to move around your gigantic butt." Ambient smiled though his glowing eyes were cold.

Butch was the local bully, and had a habit of beating up younger smaller kids. He tried to hit Ambient once, which lead to a quick trip to the nurse's after getting shocked in the privies.

Little known fact about Ambient; he _hated_ bullies with a fiery passion of hell and would deliver his own brand of justice upon them by means of going for the man's family jewels.

Butch found this out first hand. Now when facing Ambient he just insulted him but did nothing else unless he was sure he could get away with it. The red haired boy glared, mako infused eyes flashing momentarily as he made a mental note.

_After I conquer world, he's the first one to die._

"I mean really, it was entirely my fault; had I seen your elephant buttocks in time the contents of my bag would have been sparred from getting dirty on the floor. So really, I am so sorry." A smiling Ambient said, sarcasm oozing from every word.

Butch blushed in embarrassment as the children around them had stopped and laughed at Ambient's comments.

The larger boy snarling. "You son of a-"

"Good looking family? Thank you."

"Guys, cut it out." Marlene was heard, sounding exasperated. Denzel stood not far from her, looking quite ready to jump out the window just to avoid them.

"But Mar-Maaaaar! He started it!" Ambient whined, pointing at Butch.

"I don't care who started it! I'm finishing it!" Marlene said, booking no room for arguments.

"Yes, Ma'am." Ambient said with his head hanged in over dramatized shamed.

Marlene was one of the few people who could tell Ambient what to do without him fighting back about it. The others were Reno (obviously), Rufus (the guy who signs his paycheck), and Rude (only guy who could get his brother to shut up and do his job without resulting to violence, thus a truly impressive man indeed).

Butch huffed before turning away, storming through the halls. Ambient gave a hand gesture that earned him a thwack across the head from Denzel.

"Let's get the cafeteria. I would like to eat my meal at a table instead of the halls." Denzel dinged to speak now that he was fairly sure they weren't going to force him to choose sides over such a menial thing.

The trio made their way to the cafeteria when Marlene spoke.

"Ambient, what did the Valentine boys make for your lunch?"

The boy pulled out his lunchbox from his bag. "They made me Owl soup, Owl and mayo sandwiches, and BBQ Owl."

Denzel smiled, pulling out his own lunchbox. "They made me Owl and chip 'n dip with a side of Owl casserole."

Both looked at Marlene, who grinned sheepishly. "Owl pot-pie."

"Aw man! I wanted the pot-pie!"

"Trade you for a sandwich."

"Deal."

As they traded, Ambient waved at one of the school officers. These people had been hired to deal with anarchy within the school (i.e. Ambient Loveless).

"By the way, what were you doing out of class Ambient?"

The red head grinned. "I was planning on skipping school so that I could read LOVELESS."

"Again? You've must have read that book a dozen times in this month alone." Denzel groaned, knowing where this was leading.

"So? You could read this a thousand times and you'd still find new keys and theories! LOVELESS is often thought to be the prisoner's lover who is left loveless when he never returns. Another theory says that the lover was not left loveless as the prisoner was made one with the world through his sacrifice, and that the actual namesake is the wanderer who never found love because he is stuck to the quest. Alternately the namesake could be the hero friend, who, it is implied, is also stuck to the quest and never found love, but there is little evidence of that being relevant. And the quest! It's important to the tale, for they seek the gift of the Goddess who I believe is the holder of peace, knowledge and forgiveness or possibly the Healer of Worlds thus capable of cleansing the prisoners blight which if you go back to Act II-"

"We get it; you're obsessed with a romance-mystery novel. Now let me eat." Denzel interrupted. Call him indecorous, but after having sat through dozens of Ambient's theories and possible interpretation of the book, he was entitled to tell him when to shut it.

Ambient gave his friend a nasty look. "It is NOT a romance novel! It is a grandeur tale of hardship, brotherhood, severe choices, a journey of great peril, battling of ones own soul and will as you unravel the reality and truth!"

Denzel groaned as Ambient stood up, climbing onto the table. Everyone looked up at the boy, who had a familiar gleam in his eyes that had nothing to do with the mako running through his veins.

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess, we seek it thus, and take it to the sky Ripples form on the water's surface, and the wandering soul knows no rest. There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the goddess, Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds."

Realizing he was going to go on a rant and probably recite the whole book, word for sodding word, Denzel sighed before speaking again.

"Okay, I'm sorry for mocking your fetish. Please stop."

This did not deter the red head, nor did the teachers who came in to stop Ambient or at the very least get him off the table.

"My friend, do you fly away now? To a world that abhors you and I? All that awaits you is a somber morrow! No matter where the winds may blow." Ambient said as he was being hauled off the table by some rather put-off looking security guards.

The boy twisted within the grasp and in a show of dexterity one only found in the world of Gaia, Ambient weaved himself free, running through the cafeteria the maniac gleam in his eyes growing.

"My friends! Today... today, you find yourselves equals. For you are all equally blessed! For I have the privilege, nay, the _pleasure_ of enlisting you all in the armies of the night!" Ambient called out as he dodged a mad grin on his face.

Marlene and Denzel groaned; he wasn't reciting Loveless, but he was about to cause havoc.

"Here we are, a generation of wasted youths, born a stone's throws from this very building, and here for idyllic reason! But these malicious despotic centurions who hide behind the guise of school instructors would have you stay in the rut of a futureless education! Not because they have your best interests at heart but because they fear the potential you all have! Test the fates my kin!"

"Shut it Loveless!" an officer yelled. This caused the lunch lady who was a veteran of Ambient's riots to ducked into the kitchen. She knew things were about to get ugly.

Ambient dodged, his eyes brighter.

"I know that I will never be politically correct and I couldn't care less about my lack of etiquette. As far as I'm concerned, the world is burning to the ground with inquiries such as 'Who am I? Why am I here?' Forget the one-dimensional questions, they only cause conflictions!"

"Enough Loveless! Don't you have anything better to do with your time then wasting it on these dramas?" Mr. Morten yelled, though he feared the looks the kids were developing as they listened to the rebel demon.

Evading a grabbing arm Ambient laughed, pointing at the teachers.

"They got a file on me and it's a mile long, they say that they got all of the proof. They say that I'm in need of some radical restraint. That I'm just another case of arrested development and just another wasted youth."

Ambient grinned turned feral, and Mr. Morten swore that the boys pupils turned into slits for a moment there.

"They say I'm wild and I'm reckless, I should be acting my age. They forget that I'm an impressionable child in a tumultuous world at a difficult stage of my life. Tell me; doesn't that seem contrary of all the crap they're putting on the pages of books?"

He looks on the children faces turned to wide eyed surprise, as though they had been enlightened. Even those who openly hated the boy.

Ambient back flipping onto a table, striking a pose as he faced the whole school holding his stun gun high.

"They will never admit to it, but I will! Wasted youth is better by far then a wise and productive old age!"

It started slowly, and then build momentum till finally it was a paroxysm of insurrection that could be heard outside the school, filling the teachers and officers with dread and horror.

"Wasted youth is better by far then a wise and productive old age!"

From the meekest, the most intimidating, the geekiest and the most popular and everything thing in between the chant was spoken, filling the children with inspiration and panic in the adults.

"Wasted youth is better by far then a wise and productive old age!"

Soon the room vibrated with these words, a mantra of the radicals, the prayer of the anarchists, and the dirge to order.

"Wasted youth is better by far then a wise and productive old age!"

"Wasted youth is better by far then a wise and productive old age!"

"WASTED YOUTH IS BETTER BY FAR THEN A WISE AND PRODUCTIVE OLD AGE!"

The children, armed with utensils and cafeteria food, chairs and school bags and books, started surrounding the adults like a piranhas around raw flesh.

Ambient's stun gun crackled to life, a clearly crazed look in his radiant cat-slitted eyes.

So sign up all you raw recruits, throw away tradition! You got your weapons cocked, your targets in your sights! There's a bash raging somewhere in this city of ours! And I am not in it for the power, and I am not in it for my health, I am not in it for the glory of anything at all but I sure as Gaia am in it for the wealth! So fight my fellow Wasted Youths! Fight for you rights! Your family! Your freedom and for the Gift of the Goddess!"

* * *

It took four hours, three squads of SOLDIERS to get the children to surrender the school (but only after they called in back-up that came in the form of half of the former group of AVALANCHE and the Turks and spent two hours negotiating with the children self-appointed leader) and another hour to coax the teachers and officers that had been lucky enough to evade capture out of the room they had barricaded themselves into.

The police still weren't sure what to make of Mr. Morten who they had to stun five times before he finally dropped unconscious.

Ambient had gone to the detention home for about an hour before bailing himself out. Rufus threaten to slash his paycheck in half if he continued to be a menace to society. So far, a normal week.

Though he honestly believed Rufus and Tseng was being quite sadistic by making him ride with Reno on patrol duty for the rest of the day.

After nearly totaling the car (four times; though Reno did manage to total everything else on and not on the road) the red heads met up with Rude at Seventh Heaven for dinner.

Once out of the car, Ambient dropped to his knees and proceeded to kiss the dirty sidewalk, much to Reno's amusement.

"Do you have any idea what's been on that?"

"I have a fairly good idea but frankly I don't care seeing how it's concrete, isn't demolishing the city and isn't trying to break the sound barrier anytime soon."

"Eh, fair enough. Just wash out your mouth before you eat."

"I just got out of a car you drove for the past six hours, two of which was during your Road Rage Marathon. I won't be eating solids for a while."

The duo walked in, seeing both familiar and unfamiliar faces.

At the bar sat Cid. Ambient waved platonically at him and Cid flipped him off as he yelled "Stay away from my baby, you little (BEEP) (BEEP)ing (BEEP)!"

Barret who was sitting next to him told him to stop using that language around Marlene, who was cooking up Cid's order at the stove near the entrance to the bar.

Denzel was buffing tables as he took orders for Tifa, who was currently serving Rude his drink.

At a table by himself sat Vincent, who appeared to be reading a book though had looked up when Cid started yelling. His previously uninterested look quickly turned to one of pure loathing as he glared at Ambient and Reno who both waved cheerfully at him.

Tilting slightly to his cohort, Reno muttered through his grin, "Is he still angry about us putting his phone and picture in that ad for desperate housewives?"

"I thought he was into married woman. Honest mistake!" Ambient hissed back, also smiling.

"Well, if looks could kill you'd be ashes right now. Go hide in the kitchen till he leaves, 'kay?"

"Good plan." Ambient said before bee lining it to the kitchen.

Marlene looked up, a bemused smile on her face. "Caused anymore riots, Ambient?"

"No, but I was forced to watch as my life flashed before my eyes, as I was strapped into a tank being driven by a demon of speed across our fair city as a form of purgatory."

"Oh, you went on a patrol with Reno?"

"Yup."

"Cousin!" was all the warning Ambient got before he got bulldozed by three little boys.

"Cousin! We heard over the radio that your school got taken over by terrorist!" Kadaj squealed, the prospect of chaos making him overexcited.

"And that all the teachers were either captured or forced into a room!" Loz grinned from his place at Ambient back.

"And that there was a major shoot out!" Yazoo, the trigger happy one said with shining eyes.

"Yup! Well, not the shoot out. They were paranoid the last time there was a shoot out, but then they realized it was only fire crackers."

"Aww." Yazoo pouted, letting go.

With a stack of dishes, Denzel walked in looking both amused and agitated. "Ambient, you might want to stay out of sight; Cid cussing up a storm and Vincent looks ready to turn your brother into target practice."

"I'll help Tifa with the drink then." Marlene said, drying off her hands before leaving with Denzel.

"Anyways! We got our list for you to look over!" Kadaj exclaimed as he and Loz jumped off.

"A list? A list for what- oh. I see. Still on a Mother hunt?"

It could have been left over emotions from the time they had been adults or perhaps the part that they shared with Sephiroth but either way the trio wanted a Mother.

Ambient didn't want to see his 'cousins' regress back into the men they once were so he tried to help them with their motherless status by trying to get Vincent married off to a good gal.

He still didn't understand why Vincent tried to kill him for helping, though maybe he shouldn't have put Vincent on that 'Find-your-Soulmate' game show or put make a fake profile on Match .

"So who is on your list?" the red head said, grinning wolfishly.

"So far the list isn't very big." Yazoo said, handing the older boy the list.

Loz nodded. "Yeah, we only got like, five names on it."

"But that only because we all agreed on them." Kadaj chipped in.

"Otherwise we'd probably put anything female on it."

"Anyway, we wanted to hear your ideas so we can get through the process of elimination over with."

"So hopefully we can get Dad married off by like, say, Friday."

"Friday evening at the latest."

Ambient took a look at the list and immediately forced down a laugh.

"Okay, I can tell you now that contestant number four is invalid."

"Why?"

"Because Marlene is six years old and her father would kill your father if he ever tried to court her."

"Oh."

"And number two isn't available because she's already interested in someone else."

"Who?"

"Tseng. Not to mention she would hang me from my unmentionables if she ever found out I tried to put her on that blind date with Vincent a month ago."

"That was you?"

Yes, but you don't know that. And number three, well she might be a good choice but she may be too young and too immature for Vincent."

"How can Yuffie be too young?"

"She's like, eighteen while you dad's like seventy or something."

"So? She's legal."

"Valid point, but keep her as a back-up. Now number five, who is number five? I don't think I met her."

"Mrs. McGlocker is a widow who lives next to Seventh Heaven."

"She's really nice!"

"And gives us cookies!"

Ambient made a face. 'No. Just no."

"Awww, why not?"

"Because she's like, ninety-three."

"Ninety-six."

"Even more reason not to. She's even older then your dad, who is already ancient by my standards. I'm not that cruel."

"Fine."

"She can be our granny."

"Now number one," Ambient started with a good natured smile, "is an excellent choice. She cooks, cleans, kick butt, has the uber rare combo traits of a great conversationalist and personality and has nice, um, tracks of land…_very_ nice tracks of land."

"But Tifa only owns a bar." Kadaj said, trying to figure out why Ambient was grinning like a loon right now.

"And it's a oh so lovely bar too! Oh what, you meant _that_ bar…it's a great place too. Plus, she appears to be suffering from unrequited love that your daddy can swoop down and save her from."

Yazoo tilted his head; his large eyes blinking much like his lunch had mere hours ago. "Unrequited love?"

"With who?" Loz asked, also impersonating his lunch.

"Big Brother Black Sheep." Ambient deadpanned.

The trio nodded in understanding, knowing immediately who Ambient was talking about.

"So Tifa would make a good mother?"

"Not a good mother, a fantastic mother." Ambient corrected.

The trio cheered. Now all they had to do was get Tifa and their Dad married and bingo! A perfect family!

As Ambient formed ideas, Kadaj asked a question he believed would help in their quest for a real family.

"Hey cousin, what were yours and Reno's parents like?"

It seemed like a fair question, because really; any parents that can raise cousins like Reno and Ambient MUST be great parents!

Though upon hearing the pencil snap like a twig between Ambient's fingers, Kadaj realized he asked the wrong question because Ambient's face went uncharitably blank, his eyes hollow.

"…I was far too young to recall my parents, nor was I with Reno to be acquainted to his."

The trio were fairly smart so they knew the red head said something strange but couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Had they really picked at the wording, they would have wondered why Ambient referred to his and Reno's parents as two different sets of people.

Ambient's smile returned, though it looked slightly forced. "Why don't we figure out how to set up Vincent and Tifa on a date, yes?"

If the trio noticed how he got somewhat frosty towards them, they didn't comment. Ambient on the other hand wrote out suggestions, though his mind wandered to memories that were blurry at best but struck a deep cord within him.

He couldn't remember his real relatives all that well, just fuzzy memories of an anorexic horse woman and two fat hippo guys; the two hippo guys had hit him, hurt him and the smaller one used to chase him around with other kids, beating him up once caught.

The horse woman was worse though. She starved him, locked him up for days on end and said nasty things to him that hurt far worse then any physical abuse did. The most prominent memory was when he had once asked her, meekly on how they were related. She had glared at him, saying he was her worthless illegitimate nephew from her druggy prostitute of a sister who lived with her boyfriend, a jobless drunk and that they both died in a car accident but not before they dumped him on her doorstep because nobody else wanted him.

After that he had cried and ran to the park. He had intended to sit there and cry at the knowledge that his own parents didn't even wanted him when the smaller fat one and his motley crew found him. He had run from them, deep into the woods surrounding the park. He couldn't remember what happened next but the next thing he knew was that he awoke in Reno's apartment in Midgar.

Those memories, though faded with time, had never truly left him and were a constant reminder that he, much like everyone else in Midgar that there was no real normal family here, no matter how much he lied abut it.

A beautiful chirp was heard, gaining the boys attention. It was an enormous bird that filled the whole window. It looked at them in what could be called calmed fashion, or as calm as a bird could.

Ambient and the triplets stared at the bird, entranced. It was a gorgeous bird, with fiery red and gold feathers and wise keen eyes.

"Cousin, what kind of bird is that?" Kadaj whispered.

"I'll tell you what kind." Ambient whispered, reaching for his pack. With speed Yuffie would have been proud of he struck out, whacking the bird across the head with a frying pan. With a loud 'THUD' it fell over, twitching.

"It's the most important ingredient of a Phoenix Down AND tonight's dinner! Help me pluck this sucker and cook it up!"

The three boys cheered, and as they went about preparing the meal none noticed the letter that had fallen off and drifted under the sink.

* * *

Lupin took a deep breath, forcing himself not to look down.

He was currently dangling from the edge of a building, possibly a compound. How did he get into this?

Apparently the portal on his side of the reality, though about ten feet off the ground did not follow the same height on this side of reality, hens nearly dropping three stories from the ground.

He better find Harry here, otherwise he was shoving Dumbledore's lemon drops up where the sun don't shine.

* * *

The entire riot scene was made while listening to _Everything Louder then Everything Else_ by Meat Loaf. I hadn't planned it like that, but my muse took me in a entirely different direction.

Hope you like it!

Comment are welcomed, flames too as long as its a critique and not a 'u-story-suk-BAAAAD'.

Thank-you & Review!

PD

.


	5. Alchemy and Snack Trips

Title: The Turk Kid

Author: PiperDreamer

Rated: T

Disclaimer: If you think either of these is mine…you need your head examined.

* * *

Vincent liked to think he was a practical and impartial man, despite everything he had gone through.

He also liked to believe that, despite having been experimented on, forcefully possessed by Chaos and loosing the only woman he ever truly loved to a corrupted little man and helping in stopping her world destroying eldritch abomination of a son and generally watching the world go to hell in a hand basket afterwards before assisting once more in saving it, he still was needed and could do good here.

As he watched his adopted sons, he felt something akin to happiness at knowing he could help them where he failed their 'brother' and their real mother.

At the moment Loz was with Tifa helping her clean the counter, Yazoo was assisting Marlene and Denzel with the dining room as Kadaj eagerly tried to sweep without help despite the broom being nearly twice his size.

The Valentine Triple, as Yuffie had dubbed them, practically lived at Seventh Heaven mostly for the fact the only home he had was Shinra Mansion and it would be a cold day in hell before he would let them _anywhere_ near the place.

The boys were getting a real childhood no matter what.

"Hey Dad!"

Seeing Kadaj standing next to him with impossibly wide eyes and a perplex look on his chubby face, Vincent gave a smile.

"Yes?"

"Do you know anything 'bout cooking?"

Wasn't the oddest question he's been asked though still not one he expected. "Just enough to survive. Why do you ask?"

"Well Cousin Ambient-"

Placing a hand up quickly to stop him, Vincent spoke with haste. "Does this have anything to do with his inane plan to get me married off?"

"No."

"Does it involve explosions like that time with the potato?"

"No."

"Unusual flavors in anything he cooked?"

"No."

"Those owls he used as target practice and then proceeded to make you and your brother's cook up and feed to the Seventh Heavens customers?"

"Close, but no."

"…Alright, what did he do?"

"We caught a bird two days ago and were planning on making it dinner."

Vincent sighed, but motioned Kadaj to continue.

"We so far have plucked it lots of times and tried cooking it but there's a problem with it."

"Let me guess; its old and too gamey?"

"No."

"To big to cook?"

"No."

"Is it spewing acid?"

"No."

"Is Loveless using anything that smells like arsenic as a garnish?"

"What's arsenic?"

"Never mind. What's the problem with this bird you're cooking?"

"It won't stay dead."

"…pardon?"

"You see, every time we try to cook it, it bust into flames and turns into a little chick. After about three hours it's back to adulthood and we try to cook it again but it just keeps flaming up."

"Do you know what this bird is?"

"Cousin says it's a phoenix."

"Oh for the love of-! Where is it now?"

We tied it up and stuck it in the freezer. That's actually why I came to you; it's melting the freezer and I don't think Aunty Tifa will be happy to see her basement on fire."

Resisting the urge to gun down a certain red head when he next saw him, Vincent got up and marched over to where Tifa was making a bloody Mary.

"Lockhart, are you aware there's a phoenix trapped in your basement?"

Tifa looked up, blinking at the strange question. "What?"

Loz answered her. "Cousin teaching us how to cook a phoenix!"

Marlene and Denzel looked up from their choir, the former looking perplexed as the latter buried his face into his hands.

"Aren't phoenix's a government protected species?" Marlene asked.

"Yes, but Ambient's a government official. Meaning he can bend the rules till they are no longer recognizable." Denzel replied, looking forlorn but not surprised by his friend's antics.

"Cousin said that the Rare Species Protection Act clearly states that it's against the law to kill them, but nothing against us eating them." Yazoo added helpfully.

"He also said we could try to cook it again later and then stuck it in your freezer."

"He trapped a phoenix in my freezer? !" Tifa yelled running to the basement with Vincent following after.

As soon as they were down below, the trio turned to Marlene and Denzel.

"Quick, let's lock them in!" Loz said excitably.

Denzel sighed, shutting and locking the door. "Tell Ambient this goes on his tab."

"I'm surprised you did that willingly." Marlene said, smiling as she took the boys outside.

The five children ignored the yells from the basement, the indignant squawks as well. Denzel leaned against the wall as Yazoo and Loz started playing with Marlene's hair, Kadaj resting his head on her lap.

The older boy gave a snort. "Marlene, Ambient's my friend. Sure, I might dream about smothering him in his sleep sometimes, but that doesn't mean we're not friends. Tifa is probably murderous right now so if she sees him she may go off and kill him. But if we keep her away for about three hours, she'll calm down enough to think rationally."

"But why lock Vincent down there as well?"

"Because he _will_ kill Ambient, regardless if he's in a homicidal rage or not."

"And?" the girl prompt, knowing her friend better then that.

"And Ambient paid me to lock them in a room the first chance I got."

"Oh, so he's trying to set Tifa and Vincent up?"

Kadaj looked up, smiling. "Yup! Tifa gonna be our mama!"

"When can we start calling Aunty Tifa 'Mama'?"

Marlene couldn't answer because the sound of gunshot was heard, followed by the sound of a thick, large and heavy object hitting the ground along with bird screeching.

"Hmm. Ten minutes and thirty-two seconds. Not bad." Denzel said as he grabbed Yazoo and Loz before taking off, Marlene right next to him as she carried Kadaj on her back.

"Where are we going?" Kadaj said, looking back to see that an angry fiery bird had taken off for the skies and that Tifa was currently trying to put out the flames on her window.

"We're going to Dustan's." Denzel said quickly, putting on more speed.

"The shelter home? Yeah!"

"W can try and sell lemon aide again!"

"I'll make it!"

"Shouldn't we tell Ambient that death is seeking him out? Again?" Marlene asked.

"I already sent a text. If he gets caught, not my problem."

Marlene shrugged before readjusting Kadaj, rushing with her friends for the safety of the shelter home.

* * *

Reno and Rude were watching Chocobo Racing in Reno's apartment, duly ignoring the massive and colorful swearing coming from Ambient's room.

Elena, who had just arrived after getting off work because they had invited her to watch the races, stopped and winced at the more unusual array of swear words that flew from boy of questionable age.

Son of a (BEEP) (BEEP) sucker fish! Why the (BEEP) doesn't this (BEEP)ing stuff work for me! ? (BEEP)ing sow fodder! All I wanna make is phoenix down, not (BEEP)ing gold!...siiiigh…wonder if the triplets want more gold for their fort…"

Elena groaned. "He's _still_ trying to make Phoenix Down's?"

Ambient had a knack for alchemy and science, quite possibly the only class he still partake in at school without wanting to start a riot or drive the teacher insane.

In his room was an entire expert kit, right down to most legal (and not-so legal) ingredients. It had been a present from Reno, who didn't want to pay for elixir or ether potions and had hoped this would mean Ambient would create them. It took the boy about three years to figure out how to make them; the main thing he needed was elixir stones, which Shinra made in bulks and various other smaller, harder to find components (one of which was very illegal to carry or use without a license).

After mastering those, he experimented with elixir stones, finding it interesting that he could turns things into different metals and such. The easiest thing to make was gold, a rather common rock on Gaia.

Now he wanted to master Phoenix Down, but could not find the right formula to make it, thus turning everything into gold instead.

On the bright side, the triplets now had enough golden rocks to finish that fort they are making in Tifa's back yard.

Reno and Ruda gave a non-intelligible sound, confirming her question. The female Turk sighed, sitting next to Rude on the couch grabbing a bag of chips.

About half an hour later, Ambient came out of his room, looking vexed.

"Hey, squirt. Having trouble?" Reno asked, not looking away from the screen.

"I'm fantastic. So fantastic, I could cry gum drops, fart rainbows and vomit bunnies!" Ambient snarled, plopping next to Reno.

"Well can you cry me some gum drops then? I want something sweet." Came Reno's snarky reply.

"Sorry, no can do. I used them to flavor my ether potions."

"Darn. Here's fifty gil. Buy me ice cream, please? You can get something too."

Ambient's sour mood evaporated. "Yippee! Where are the keys?"

"In the left pocket of my coat by the door."

"Reno, Ambient's too young to drive." Elena said, glaring at the lax red head.

"Oh, yeah. Elena, can you take him? I'd go, but Rufus has suspended my driving license after I took out that building and Rude's already had two beers."

The blonde woman muttered under her breath before getting up and walking to the door, Ambient practically dancing with excitement.

Just then his phone went off, and the youngest Turk looked at it, stopping his happy dance to read the text.

A second later Elena found herself being rushed out the door by pale faced Ambient, who had yelled back at Reno, "Tell Tifa and Vincent I'm at work!"

In record time they were in the car, Ambient telling Elena to go as fast as possible as he put a baseball cap on, trying to look like a normal kid. Seeing how he was in a sweater, jeans and red sneakers she thought the hat was overkill but this was Ambient.

The two got to a nearby shop, a small quant little store.

The two entered, Ambient greeting the store owner before starting to browse the place. He apparently has been here plenty of times, seeing how he knew where everything was.

Taking their time Ambient chatted with his fellow turk who enjoyed his prudent behavior.

A sudden screech was heard, causing both to turn to the one in question.

_Oh no._ Elena thought when she recognized the man.

"Hello Mr. Morten." Ambient said, grinning.

"No, it's not school hours! You shouldn't be here!" the man said, hysteria evident in his voice.

"Guess what I did today!" Ambient said far too cheerfully.

The man waved his hands about as though trying to stop whatever the red head had done. "No! Don't tell me! I don't want to know!"

"Okay." Ambient pouted, looking sulky before grinning evilly. "I just won't tell you what I did to your car."

"My car? ! What have you done to my car! ?" the man screeched, tearing out the building to see any damage the boy had done.

Elena sighed, giving the grinning child a baleful look. "Ambient, can't you behave? What had that poor man done to you?"

"I'm a degenerate brat who spits on authority. What did you expect?"

"I had hoped you'd behave. How foolish of me to think you would." Elena responded, looking down at the boy with ire.

But Ambient was no longer paying attention to her. Instead he was focusing on a man not too far from them.

Elena looked at the man. He looked around thirty though he had gray in his hair, has clothes were weather worn and he didn't look well. He stared forlornly at the pastries, hand on his stomach.

_A homeless? No, his clothes are in better condition then most. Perhaps he recently was put off work._ Elena thought. She was surprised when Ambient walked forward with a determined look on his face.

Tugging on the man's coat, Ambient got his attention. The man stared at him in a friendly manner which quickly melted to confusion as Ambient said, "Pick something. I'll buy."

The man chuckled, patting Ambient's covered head. "That's very kind of you, but I wouldn't want to be a bother to anyone."

Ambient smiled at him, and Elena noted that the man seemed started when he saw the boys' eyes. She didn't really blame him; children's eyes don't glow normally.

"You're not a bother, and I got plenty of money so its not an issue!"

"What about your mother? Do you have her permission?"

Both males jump at the shriek Elena emitted, giving the man a disbelieving look.

"You think I'm his mother? ! Do I look that old? !"

"Uh…"

"His stunned silence means 'Yes' in case you didn't know, Elena." Ambient said to the sputtering woman as he looked back at the sheepish man who tried to correct Ambient.

"I recommend the pie, and those beef sandwiches are great! Best wash it down with juice which is over there." Ambient said, deciding for the man as he started filling a cart for the man.

In several minutes the man was trying to stop Ambient from buying anymore, saying he couldn't eat all that and that the boy was being too kind to which the boy shrugged it off.

Soon they were before the cashier, who knew Ambient but didn't run screaming from him. This was probably due to the fact that Reno and Ambient were regulars and practically kept the place from going under.

"Please! You don't have to help." The man pleaded, looking flustered.

"Exactly. I don't have to." Ambient said paying. Turning he grinned at the man. "But I want to."

The man looked deeply touched, and Elena looked surprised by Ambient's seemingly random act of kindness. The cashier on the other hand just smiled fondly.

"Hey you got a car or something?" Ambient asked, grabbing a bag.

"Ah, no. I'm new to Midgar, trying to find work." The man said.

"Live close to here then?"

"No. I have absolutely nothing here." the man said, looking nervous, causing Elena to become suspicious.

"Huh. Okay. We can put you in the shelter home till you find a job!" Ambient said cheerfully though he too looked doubtful, walking out the door with the man. Calling back, "Hey mom! We'll be in the car! Don't keep us waiting!"

"I'm not your mother!" Elena yelled but the door was already closed. Grumbling she paid for her candy as the cashier laughed.

"Don't stay mad at him. He's just a kid playing around." The man said.

"I know, I know. But god is he arbitrary! Picking up some random guy just for the hell of it!"

The man blinked, looking surprised. "Turk Ambient helps homeless guys on a regular basis."

That surprised her. "What?"

"He and those other kids are volunteers over at Dustan's Shelter Home. They are constantly helping the guys there, or telling people to go there if they have no where else to go, and this is just a rumor but they say that Turk Ambient donates there a lot."

"…Are we talking about the same kid?"

"He finds them and takes them there and he helps with finding jobs for them. For a kid, he's really helpful."

A honking was heard, telling Elena that a certain red head was getting impatient and might hotwire the car and leave if she didn't hurry.

She made it out to Reno's car where Ambient and the man stood. The boy grinned, waving to the man, "Hey Elena! I'd like ya to meet Lupin!"

The man nodded, raising a hand out. "Remus Lupin. It's nice to meet you."

The lady smiled, taking his hand. "Nice to meet you. Shall we go?"

"Is it alright? I can walk there if your in a hurry." The man, Lupin offered.

"Nah, we got time before the ice cream melts. Not to mention its not safe to go back home yet."

The man looked startled at this. "Why? Are your parents fighting?"

"No, I'm an orphan. My pseudo-sister and her not-really-boyfriend's friend who I'm trying to hook up are out to kill me for something I probably helped with. But on the bright side, nothing brings to people together like homicide!"

Lupin looked mildly disturbed by the amount of flippancy the boy used while talking about people trying to kill him.

"Really though, I ain't going back there till Reno texts me or Loveless gets banned, in which case I'll seek death with open arms." Ambient said before seeing that Mr. Morten was still here, checking every nook and nanny of his car.

Elena sighed getting into the car, pointedly ignoring when Ambient walked over to Mr. Morten as the boy said, "I'll give you a hint; it's not external."

"Aaaaah! You rigged a bomb to it didn't you? !"

"No. But you'll wish I had."

"Did I just get helped by an insane kid?" Lupin asked, giving Ambient a wary look as the boy laughed his butt off at the other man's expense.

"Yes." Was all Elena could say as she started the car.

* * *

Here's the next chapter! Yippie!

Hope its good, its past midnight here and it's a wonder that I can still spell anything correctly! Goodnight, enjoy and please review!

PD

.


	6. Lupin's view

Title: The Turk Kid

Author: PiperDreamer

Rated: T

Disclaimer: If you think either of these is mine…you need your head examined.

* * *

It had been a week since he arrived in this city the locals called Midgar and so far it was the single most abysmal place he had ever been.

Before leaving Dumbledore had given him ten galleons, thirty sickles and a dozen knuts. That way even if they had a different currency Lupin could bribe someone if necessary for information and to eat for a day.

McGonagall had given him some supplies such as food and in the event that what ever was on the other side wasn't human or hostile a pendant that aloud him to 'disappear' into the background or to appear as what ever was on the other side, as well as a translator.

Snape pushed him through the gate, unintentionally saving his life because had he walked through he would have falling to his death instead of pushed into the ledge of the building.

Once he climbed to solid ground he had almost gagged on the air itself, a soiled taste that caused his heightens senses to blanch. The skies were always cloudy and grey and he had a sickening suspicion that it had nothing to do with the weather.

Unfortunately he had faced the problem of food after day three. He had stretched the food given to him as best as he could and had wandered into a decent looking store in search of something cheap yet edible.

He had barely been in there for twenty minutes when a child had found him and in a show of unexpected kindness paid for his lunch and then with the lady he brought in with him, Lupin now had lodgings at a shelter home called Dustan's.

Looking at the four story building Lupin could tell that despite its old appearance it was in decent condition, the building looked sturdy on the outside was people who appeared to be getting off work or going to work.

He had been grateful towards Elena and Ambient, because even though he hadn't asked for it, they still found him a place to stay that he didn't have to pay for. That made him feel guilty because he had lied about his origins but now at least he had a place to stay that was solid and had working water and electricity.

But more impressively the boy named Ambient Loveless had somehow gotten him a part-time job within a day of living there.

When the boy and Elena had asked about what sort of skills he had, he had told them he was a repair man of sorts; he fixed a bit of everything. It hadn't been lying, since he could fix pretty much anything as long as no one saw how he did it.

Ambient had told Dustan Krooger, the elderly man that ran the shelter home. Dustan then requested him to fix the heating vents for the fourth floor where most of the children stayed. Seeing no harm, and making sure he wasn't watched he had fixed the damaged vents.

After checking the vents and finding them working better then ever, Dustan hired him on as a contractor to fix the rest of the building, hence why he was getting free room and.

Currently he was fixing the third floor windows that were in dire need of replacing. Checking every few minutes for prying eyes, Lupin waved once, muttering a spell under his voice and watched as the window started repairing itself with a stratified smile.

Glass mended, filling where it was missing, the ledge whole once more with new looking metal rims.

Inspecting his handiwork, Lupin allowed his mind to go back to the reason he was here in the first place: Harry.

Had Harry been here there was a possibility that he didn't survive the ledge or if he did Lupin had no trouble imagining that the poor boy had been taken in by some local gang or worse was one of those children he saw on the streets and corners begging for food or coin.

He no longer had any of his knuts seeing how he gave them to those kids, though he felt horrible about their condition; they must have had it worse then he thought if something as cheap as knuts caused them such delight!

Honestly, between the sad state this city was in and its somewhat cutthroat denizens he was surprised it had any order!

Well, maybe _order_ wasn't the right word. The police here were licensed to kill you if you prove too dangerous, obeyed the Shinra Company (a autocracy-like government he was lead to believe) every rule as well as a former terrorist group called Avalanche and were on a mentality of 'shoot first, ship remains to Shinra for science purposes later', so it was only marginally better in his option.

To make things worse the whole world, Gaia, had apparently been recovering from a omnicidal maniac dark lord who had nearly succeeded in wiping out all life, just barely survived a plague that had been killing people by the thousands coupled with a trio of insane cultist men who was trying to bring back aforementioned omnicidal maniac dark lord.

And that was only in the past two or so years.

It was safe to say he had absolutely no idea where to even start looking for Harry, or if he was even alive in this hostile ruthless world.

That said, he was understandably surprised when he saw Ambient Loveless' eyes.

Emerald green eyes had greeted him, messy red hair sticking out of the cap he had been wearing when they met and Lupin swore he had been looking at a tomboy version of Lily Evans. When he first met the boy he had forced himself to remain quiet, trying to quail his excitement with cold logic.

The boy couldn't be James son, he had red hair while Harry had black but then he reasoned that the boy probably dyed his hair since he could smell chemicals on the child.

The boy looked eight while Harry was eleven, but then he recalled that most of the children here looked much younger here so it was possible Harry looked younger.

He couldn't be Harry because Lupin did not think his luck was that good, but then again he didn't know what had become of his best friends child so perhaps he had lucked out for once?

Part of him secretly hoped the kind boy who helped him and the other people of Dustan's was Harry while another part of him hoped the boy who took sick delight in tormenting that poor man the other day wasn't Harry.

Finishing the final window, Lupin stretched, heading for the stairs. He didn't have any evidence to support this thought, just theories and half-baked ideas. It didn't take long to reach the bottom floor, not when he was in deep thought.

Soon he was outside, looking around the inferential city, wonder when he should report back to Dumbledore.

Part of him felt he should, while a bigger part of him wanted to stay.

Despite being lovingly and aptly dubbed the City of Slums by Ambient, Midgar wasn't so bad. Once he put a ward around his pockets to prevent young thieves and stunned anyone who tried to mug him, he did well.

And the civilians weren't so bad either, friendly once they knew you as a good person and not someone trying to steal them blind (he had seen people just walk in a random room a pilfer the place, right in front of the guy living there before sitting down and having a friendly chat with him!), kind of like a city wide Knockturn Alley only not quite as safe as Knockturn Alley.

It was just that nobody treated him like a diseased monster, or gave him odd scared looks when he said he was not feeling well and they allowed him near the children. He felt…normal.

"Lemonade! Get you lemonade!"

Pulled from his thoughts, Lupin couldn't help but smile at the trio standing not far from the shelter entrance.

He watched in amusement as the trio of silver haired boys (why in this world did they allow kids to dye their hair at such young age?) sat behind their little stand, smiling brightly as they tried to sell lemonade.

"Lemonade! Get you lemonade! Only ten gil a cup!" The child with neck long hair that half covered his face cried out, waving his cup high.

Lupin had met the odd children known as the Valentine Trio shortly after his arrival, triplet boys that adored Ambient. They didn't live at the shelter home, but at a bar called Seventh Heaven.

When introduced to them he had been startled by their eyes, cat like but wide with innocence. Their father worked a lot and had paid for them to live with the owner of Seventh Heaven who was a friend of his, though they spent a great deal of time with Ambient's friends; a young cheerful girl named Marlene Wallace and a disgruntled boy called Denzel Strife.

Both of which were in the kitchen of the shelter home at the moment, having volunteered for kitchen duty when they got out of school, which surprised Lupin. Most children back home spent their time playing during summer but here on Gaia the children had school during summer! And after some of the children who were doing homework allowed him to view their work he could safely say that the education here was taken very seriously and very stringently.

He may not have gone to a Muggles School since he was eleven but even he was fairly certain kids around Denzel age weren't supposed to know calculus.

A small part of him could see why since the world as a whole was still recovering, children always held the future in their hands would need stricter education to better not just themselves but the world around them and competent teachers would be priceless.

A tug on his pants brought the werewolf out of his thoughts. Looking down, Lupin saw one of the small boys there (the one with the shortest hair), smiling up at him.

"Mr. Lupin! Want some lemonade? Only ten gil!" the boy, Loz he thought, said.

Lupin smiled at the small boy, digging out some gil from his pocket. If anyone asked, he got his gil from a poker game, and had not in any way mugged his would-be muggers.

"Here you go." The ma said and watched as the boys' faces lit up.

"Yippee! First customer of the day! We'll throw in an extra drink, for free!" The other child, Kadaj, said.

Lupin took the cup the last boy, Yazoo, offered as Loz poured another drink and spilling some on the counter as Kadaj scowled him for spilling.

Amused by the boy's antics he took a large sip.

The three boys stopped what they were doing upon hearing Lupin make a choking sound.

The man's face was pull together, eyes crossed as a whimpering whine vibrated from his throat.

"Wow! He looks like one of those sucker fishes they have at the pet shop!" Loz exclaimed, watching Lupin as the man continued to make odd noises.

"Yazoo, did you add any sugar?" Kadaj asked as he turned to his sibling.

"Oh, we were out of sugar so I added salt. It's the same color so I figured it worked the same, but then I remembered that salt isn't sweet so I added pinesol." The long haired boy shrugged.

"Um, guys I think Mr. Lupin's face is stuck like that." Loz said, watching in awe as Lupin's face seemed to practically cave in onto itself as it sucked into a comical pucker. Not to mention he was turning a sickly color that wasn't green, but also a color they didn't think existed.

"What did cousin say to do when you messed up badly?" Kadaj muttered as he watched Lupin seem to be undergoing a full body spasm.

"Destroy all evidence." Yazoo recalled.

"And find a plausible alibi." Loz finished.

The boys cleaned up their mess and ran inside, leaving Lupin who appeared to be suffering a seizure on the sidewalk but not before calling Denzel and Marlene; after all Mr. Lupin really didn't look too well and was a very nice person.

* * *

Ambient stared bitterly at the computer, eye twitching slightly.

**TURK EXERISE:**

**Registration # HP1517**

**Turk: Ambient Loveless**

**Weapon(s): Stun Gun and Combat Knife**

**Stage Complete:**

**Targets Destroyed: 39 or 100**

**Accuracy: 12%**

**Elixir Used: 5**

**Critical Hits: 7**

**Materia Use: 2**

**Overall performance: C**

"A freakin' C? Not fair!" the turk-child yelled.

Burying his face in a hand he bemoaned, "My friend, the fates are cruel! There are no dreams, no honor remains…because I'm about to hack into the computer and fry the mother board!"

"Tseng will murder you if you do and claim drug induced insanity. Remember, the last time you did that they had to shut down the building because you messed with the security codes." Reno voice drifted from somewhere behind him.

"That was an accident! I only meant to wipe the hard drive-"

"-which has the entire buildings security encoded into it."

Ambient pouted, glaring behind him. Reno was leaning against the wall, hands in his pockets grinning at him.

"At least I didn't cause a city wide black out."

"I told Tseng that computer took a lot of power, thus I gave him plenty of forewarning. Anyhow, why are you getting upset over a C? You a kid, your still young and got plenty of time to get better."

"But Rufus said if I get an A on my performance, I could start doing missions outside of the city!"

Despite being a valuable asset to Shinra, Ambient was still a child.

Even Rufus, though pragmatic and not one to feel remorse over sacrificing his 'minions', felt sick over the idea of actively putting Ambient in dangerous missions. Thus the reason he placed the Training Standard.

That and Reno had threaten to give him a joy ride around Midgar if Ambient was given missions outside of Midgar before he reached the desired rank.

Reno sighed before pushing off the wall. "Then you can try again next time. Now come on; I havta get back to Rufus' office. I'm on guard duty."

"…Rufus' office is on the top floor. We're in the basement area." Ambient deadpanned.

"I needed a bathroom break, then I got an espresso, flirted with this cute blonde which led to us making out in the broom closet, got a bite to eat, ran into that hot brunette who works in the 46th and found a empty room and made out with her, then got a latte then got distracted when I heard you swearing Wutai-"

"Yuffie swears a lot when she thinks no one is listening." Ambient defended himself.

"-and being a good brother, I came to investigate."

"Yeah well- wait. The espresso maker is on the 64th floor and that latte machine is on the 30th and you started at the top floor…how the heck did you hear me way down here? Did you bug me or something?"

Reno quickly turned around, walking briskly to the elevator.

"…you bugged me, didn't you! ?"

"_I_ didn't bug you…but Tseng did have you clothes tailored to carry a tracking device. I just sort of swiped it. If it makes you feel better, I'm fairly certain I'm still bugged."

"'Still'?"

"I found at least three on me since I got my laundry back from the cleaners. Don't worry, Tseng's just paranoid that we'll raze the city to the ground."

"Seriously? Sheesh, you accidently set off a nuke _one_ time and everyone is convinced you're some kind of disaster magnet! I told them; if I'm gonna destroy a city, I would set the sucker ablaze! Like Sephiroth did!"

"Hence the trackers. Besides, knowing where we are helps Tseng sleep better at night. Anyway, I really need to get back to the top floor. Havta at least appear I'm doing my job and I still need to get Rude his espresso."

Ambient followed after, figuring he had nothing better to do since he was off duty and not currently harassing educational instructors.

The trip was long, taking half an hour to reach the top and all awhile the duo were talking about cars, planes, weapons, materia and various other things. Occasionally Reno would stop to shamelessly flirt with a girl and Ambient's kleptomania would start acting up and would pilfer something shiny.

Finally the duo reached the top where Rude was reading a book.

"Yo! I'm back and I bring caffeine and a preadolescence minion!"

Ambient waved at Rude who nodded before taking his espresso. Reno was so lucky to have a partner like Rude; anyone else would have surely killed Reno by now.

When the day came when he would get partnered off, Ambient preyed they were like Rude. That man was a saint for putting up with them and still being best friends with Reno.

Maybe he could convince Marlene or Denzel to join the Turks. Hmm, Marlene definitely. Denzel would probably snap and kill him after a month.

"Hey Rude! Got any cards? I'm bored." Reno said, sprawled lazily in a chair.

The silent man pulled a deck out, tossing it at his partner.

"Thanks! Wanna play?"

Not looking up from his book, Rude shook his head as he sipped his drink.

"Darn. Ambient, play with me."

"Okay. What game?"

"Poker. I win, and you get to dye Cloud's hair pink. I loose, you can drive home today."

"You're on!"

* * *

Ambient whistled merrily. He had won the poker game, though only because Elena found them gambling in front of Rufus' door and proceeded to box his ears and tongue lash Reno.

Rude handed him the keys while Elena was lectured Reno, telling him to drive safe.

He decided to go to Dustan's. The boy had befriended the people there, many who were family men who were employed by the Shinra Company to work on various places around Midgar or if they could afford to, go abroad and work in other city and towns, or children of said workers who had nowhere else to go.

He liked Dustan's, because the place gave hope. Dustan didn't charge anyone to live there, not really. The rent, if you could call it that, was normally in the form of repairs or keeping the place stocked with food or things like blankets, pillows, rescued furniture, or odd jobs that seemed whimsical but helped improve life at the shelter home.

It made Ambient proud to see the people of Midgar rising above their problems and take a stand, not for themselves but for their loved ones. He could respect that.

Ambient came by often, making large donations and directing people to Dustan's.

Pulling up, Ambient was surprised to see Denzel and Marlene outside the building. Normally they would be at Seventh Heaven by now.

Stopping the car aways, the young boy parked and walked out, wondering why they were still here.

"Yo!" he greeted, causing both to turn to him.

Ambient grinned at his friends, duly ignoring the way Denzel was glaring accusingly at him.

"Hello everyone!" the green eyed boy said brightly.

"Hi Ambient." Marlene said, though her smile looked strained.

Looking between the two Ambient took a slight step back, just in case. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it." The red headed stated.

"Then how do you know that something happened?" Denzel asked, a grin on his face as he thought he trapped the younger boy.

"Because you're giving looks that stated clearly 'Ambient you FUBAR'ed. Royally'. Now please tell me what's wrong so I can change my story accordingly?"

Marlene shook her head in amused exasperation before answering. "Mr. Lupin was hauled to the hospital to get his stomach pumped."

Ambient winced. "…Yazoo made the lemonade again, didn't he?"

Aside from having prodigy shooting skills, Yazoo also had promise as a poisoner seeing how all the drinks he made resulted in someone needing an immediate trip to the hospital to get their stomachs pumped or downing an entire bottle of elixir.

Yazoo didn't mean to poison people; he just didn't know that most of his ingredients were not made for human consumption, much to Vincent's chagrin.

It frustrated Ambient to no end that people thought he had a hand in Yazoo's misconception in what was and wasn't edible.

That said, he still felt bad for Lupin. The guy may be getting room and board for free, but the guy was still looking for a job. Ambient knew for a fact he couldn't afford a hospital bill.

Call him a degenerate stingy brat with the moral fiber of well chewed piece of gum, but Ambient always had a soft spot for those who couldn't make ends meet. He hated poverty with a passion and it was on his list of things to fix once he took over the world.

"Great," Ambient sighed. "Now I gotta go hack into Shinra funds and pay off this. Poor guy."

"Why don't you just put a down payment? You're a Turk, you aren't wanting in money."

"But it's _my_ money! How can I sponsor a world takeover if I have an empty piggy bank?"

"But you're taking from the people who pay you."

"As far as they are concerned, some random mook did it. Honestly, it'll be a total shame and our esteemed president will be angry as hell but what will be done will be done."

Denzel sighed. There was no stopping him. "Well then, you may want to go by the hospital now. Vincent's will be by in like five minutes to pick up the triplets and said the next time he saw you that he was going to use your gizzards to shine his revolver-"

Tires screeched, and Denzel and Marlene watched the Shinra car speed past them in a hurry.

"Denzel, he said it'll be another hour and a half hour before he picks up the boys."

"Oops. My bad, must have misheard him. You got to admit, Ambient can be pretty fast when he's properly motivated."

* * *

Dumbledore stared at his familiar. The bird had just returned and was extremely twitchy.

"Did you run into trouble over there, Fawkes?"

The bird glared at him. Not a good sign.

"Well, if Lupin doesn't make contact soon, I'll be sending you back in."

"SQUAaaahhhAAAAaaahhhAAAWK!"

Interesting, Fawkes was crying. He never shed tears needlessly before.

* * *

Next chapter! yays!

Please review!

PD


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